Background
The son of Roger Hargreaves, he continues his father"s popular Mr. Men series of children"s books When at the age of six he asked his father "What does a tickle look like?", Roger used that question to create the first book, Mr.
Tickle, which was published in 1971.
Hargreaves took over the Mr. Men and Little Mission cartoon empire after his father"s death in 1988, despite initially thinking the series "embarrassing" and "a bit clichéd" and contemplating a life as a farmer.
Career
Hargreaves also served as inspiration for the series. At the time he had worked on a beef and arable farm in Sussex and, after taking a course at Plumpton Agricultural College in 1984, as a dairyman. He then traveled to Australia for four months, where he met the woman he would marry in 1987.
He said that as he taught himself to draw like his father he started to have a real respect for what he had done.
He understood his father"s sense of humour and that what made the books and the characters so successful is that they are about universal human emotions and the books have a strong sense of morality. In 2004 the family sold the rights to the Mr.
Men to entertainment group Chorion for £28 million, although Hargreaves remains the public face of the franchise and continues to invent new characters. Stella McCartney commissioned him to create Little Mission Stella for the invitations to her 2006 fashion show.
Foreign the series" 40-year anniversary in 2011 he released Little Mission Princess just in time for the royal wedding.
Although best known for continuing the Mr. Men series, Hargreaves has a lifelong passion in painting.
