My father, Gareth Floyd, who has died aged 82, was a book illustrator and teacher who painted the pictures for many series of BBC TV’s Jackanory programme from the 1960s to the 90s, often visiting the studios to make adjustments during filming.
Jackanory usually involved an actor, seated in an armchair, reading from children’s novels, with specially commissioned drawings shown on screen at various intervals. Gareth provided illustrations for more than 150 of its episodes, including for The Signposters, read by Billie Whitelaw (1969); The Railway Children, read by Jane Asher (1981); Five Children and It, read by Judy Parfitt (1983); and Stig of the Dump, read by Christopher Guard (1986).
Over that period he also illustrated many books for children and adults, working closely with authors such as Helen Cresswell (The Night-Watchmen, 1969), Barbara Willard (The Lark and the Laurel, 1970) and Cynthia Harnett (The Writing on the Hearth, 1971).
Born in St Helens, Merseyside, Gareth was the middle child of Leonard Floyd, an engineer at the Pilkington glass factory, and his wife, Harriet (nee Smith). When he was five the family moved to Halesworth, Suffolk, at the end of the second world war, and he attended Sir John Leman high school in Beccles before going on to Lowestoft Art School (1958-60). Afterwards he studied illustration at Guildford School of Art and took a teaching certificate (1963) at Brighton School of Art (now part of Brighton University). In 1964 he began teaching illustration at Leicester College of Art.
That year, too, Gareth met Penny Dean in Guildford, and they married in 1965. I was born in 1966 in Leicester. A second daughter, Morgan, was born in 1968 but died the same day.
Keen to work as a book illustrator, Gareth showed artwork to publishers in London and was accepted by Jonathan Cape. His first book for them was Watch on Peter, by John Rackham (1964). By 1968 he had enough freelance work to give up teaching and the family moved to Guildford, where another daughter, Megan, was born in 1970.
During the 70s Gareth was a Liberal party councillor for Guildford district council and then Surrey county council. He also stood unsuccessfully as an MP for the parliamentary constituency of Aldershot in the February 1974 general election, coming second to the Conservative candidate, Julian Critchley, but increasing his party’s share of the vote by 16%.
In 1985 he went back into teaching, becoming a craft, design and technology teacher at St Catherine’s school in Bramley, Surrey, before retiring in 1999.
In addition to his drawing, Gareth was an excellent model maker, building miniature railway engines from scratch and running them on a track in his basement.
He is survived by Penny, by me, his sister Jeff and brother Chris, and five grandchildren. Megan died in 2019.
