Tony died of acute myeloid leukaemia on June 18th 2022
"Tony's wife and his family wished this last blog post to go on to the website. I always enjoyed working with Tony and it was a pleasure to have built his website with him and maintained it as he added more and more wonderful books to his collection. He was a very special man and will be greatly missed. His legacy will continue every time one of his books is shared with a new generation of readers." Kate MacRae
"There came a time when Tony could not expect to live for longer than a few weeks and so he was moved to the hospice in Cambridge for end of life care.
He had a sunny room with doors to a garden where he could see flowers and watch the birds. His wife and family came to be with him every day and many of his friends came to visit. There was lots of talk and laughter. He was quite a celebrity at the hospice because so many of the doctors, nurses and staff had loved Tony’s books when they were children and were reading them to their own children now.
From all over the world people used to get in touch with Tony. He specially loved hearing from the children who wrote to him, often sending him their own poems and drawings. He wrote back whenever he could, to old and young, sending encouragement and good wishes. He is no longer here to do that but Tony hoped that, all the same, his poems and picture books would go on bringing fun, comfort and inspiration for a long time to come.”