Reality is fairytale enough. Each day is new. Children understand this best. It's we adults who have forgotten. I want to tell stories so that children and adults will be reminded and can laugh and be amazed together.
Gunilla Bergström
Swedish author and illustrator Gunilla Bergström is best known as the creator of Alfons Åberg (English: Alfie Atkins), the good-natured hero of a long series of illustrated children's books. Bergström was born in 1942 in Gothenburg. She graduated from the Gothenburg Institute of Journalism in 1966 and pursued a career as a journalist.
Bergström made her literary debut in 1971 with the children's book Mias pappa flyttar ("Mia's daddy is moving"). A year later, the first Alfons Åberg book was published. In 1975 she gave up working as a journalist to become a full-time author and illustrator.
Gunilla Bergström does all the illustrations for her books, and she is self-taught on this field. Her main techniques are ink and collage, and she happily mixes materials such as paper, fabric and yarns. Her artwork has been shown in both joint and separate exhibitions in Sweden. Bergström has published more than 30 children's books and received some 16 awards and distinctions for her writing and artwork - so far. She has also adapted several of her own stories for the stage and written children's songs along with the composer Georg Riedel.