From Hagar to Rachel Book

The Tiger Who Came to Tea is a picture story book for very young children. It was first published in 1968, but is one of those books which appeals to generation after generation. I remember children in the 1970s loving it, and it is just as popular today.

It is all about a little girl called Sophie, her mummy, and a tiger, all of whom have tea together. (Of course it is. What did you expect? The title told you that is exactly what it would be.)

The story starts with a ring at the door, interrupting Sophie and her mummy when they are having their afternoon tea in their kitchen. Who could it be, they wonder. Sophie opens the door and a tiger peeps around the edge of the door frame. He is very polite, and asks if he may join them. “Of course, come in” Sophie’s mummy says.

But a tiger is a very big animal, with a simply enormous appetite. Although he sits very nicely at the kitchen table, and waits politely to be offered the sandwiches, the cakes, the buns and then the biscuits, each time he scoffs the lot! And when he is offered a cup of tea, he not only drinks it all, but also all the milk in the milk jug. Then he looks round to see what else he can find.

The tiger gets into all the saucepans, the cupboards and the fridge, eating every single scrap of food in the house and drinking everything too - even the water from the taps. Nobody seems to mind though. Sophie cuddles him, rides on his back and plays with his stripy tail - and the tiger still has a great big smile on his face. At last there is nothing left to eat. So …

“Thank you for my nice tea. I think I’d better go now”

says the tiger, and he leaves by the same door as he came in, as they all wave goodbye to each other.

After he has left, Sophie’s mummy notices what a mess there is, and oh dear, Sophie can’t have her bath either because there is not a drop of water left! Sophie’s daddy comes home and they both explain that there is no food because a tiger had eaten it all. Not to worry, daddy says, they can all go out and have a meal in a cafe.

So that is exactly what they do, even though it has got dark and all the street lights are on. (If you look carefully you can even see a stripy cat on the pavement!) They have a lovely meal of sausages, and chips, and ice cream. The next day Sophie and her mummy go out to buy some more food, and they make sure they buy a big tin of Tiger Food.

But the tiger never did come to tea again.

This is a charming book, with a fully anthropomorphised, gentlemanly tiger. Partly why it succeeds so well is that it is so matter of fact, using a familiar if slightly old-fashioned English setting, with an oddball element. The carefully drawn pictures complement it very well. Minimalist backgrounds make sure that the handsome tiger with his cheeky grin is very prominent, along with the simply rendered and attractive characters. Line and gouache is used, with perhaps little touches of crayon; the painted colours being flat and bright.

Judith Kerr has also written a series of 18 well-loved children’s picture books about “Mog the Cat”. Her novel for older children, “When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit” has also been highly acclaimed. It is semi-autobiographical, giving a child’s-eye view of the Second World War. Although living most of her life in England and thought of as an English author, Judith Kerr was actually born in Berlin, Germany. She has a Jewish background, and her family had to flee the country in 1933, as her father was on a death list for opposing the Nazis. He was a theatre critic, and after he fled the country his books were burned by the Nazis. The family escaped to Switzerland and France, before finally settling in Great Britain.

Some critics, notably the children’s author Michael Rosen, have suggested that the tiger in this story represents something in her past:

“Judith knows about dangerous people who come to your house and take people away. She was told as a young child that her father could be grabbed at any moment by either the Gestapo or the SS - he was in great danger. So I don’t know whether Judith did it consciously or not - I wouldn’t want to go there - but the point is he’s a jokey tiger, but he is a tiger”.

However the author herself denies this. She first thought of the story after visiting a zoo with her three year old daughter, telling it many times over and over for about a year. Then she wrote it all down, and created the careful quirky illustrations.

The Tiger Who Came to Tea is one of the best selling children’s books of all time. It has been translated into several languages, adapted for the theatre and made into a musical. Judith Kerr was married to the author Nigel Kneale, of Quatermass fame, a very inventive SF screenwriter. The two were married for over 50 years, until his death in 2006. Judith Kerr herself is still writing and illustrating her delightful picture books at the grand age of 93.