Now, I had been drawing all this time – especially in France of course – so, when I came back, my father gave me the chance to do a cover for one of the books he published.

When I make a book, I make it for the child and not for the parent – no jokes in it for the parents!

I want a nice picture book with 12 pictures – I do my best with that format.

I did about 2000 covers altogether, for all sorts of books – from Shakespeare to James Bond – and I always had the idea that I must give 100%, no matter who the author was.

Then one day I thought it would be wonderful to make a whole book, to make my text and my drawings together, and that’s how I started doing children’s books.

However, my father was a publisher and it was expected that I would become a publisher as well - in his firm.

But I don't sit down and think: this is meant for children.

Before he went to sleep, I told him a little story about a rabbit we saw run around the beach house we rented.

Then one day I thought it would be nice to try to draw that rabbit and make a little story of it - and that's how Miffy started.

A few years ago, I had an exhibition at a museum in Holland where, for the very first time, I saw how much Miffy had changed over the years.