Much of her success lay in her confidence to create stories that avoided obvious messaging and to present them without making any judgments: parents are not cross when they cannot sleep or have time to themselves, nor are they failures.
In her words and especially in her comfortingly detailed yet stylish illustrations, Jill’s stories were full of humour, imagination and a sense of play. More child-centred is the playful and imaginary adventure Whatever Next! (1983), in which Baby Bear turns a cardboard box into a rocket and whooshes up the chimney. Father Bear’s search to find a quiet place to sleep in Peace at Last and Mrs Large’s need to find time for herself in Five Minutes’ Peace (1986) are both wonderfully sympathetic to some of the familiar and rather tougher parental situations. Neither judgmental not soppy they reflect reality as they revolve around easily recognisable situations. While the characters are animals the situations are entirely human and her stories are full of understanding and sympathy for parents as well as children. Her stories about the Bear family and the family of elephants with the unsubtle surname Large, which they wear with pride, reflect that. She liked children and all the warmth and mess of family life. In words and pictures, Jill’s stories have an easy and natural appeal to children. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books, London Photograph: Illustrations © 1986 Jill Murphy. While the characters are animals the situations are entirely human and her stories are full of understanding for parents as well as children. Five Minutes’ Peace by Jill Murphy, about a family of elephants.