In his work, Tucker eschewed avant-garde experimentation and, like many of the inter-war artists – Gerald Leslie Brockhurst, Winifred Knights, Harold Williamson, and James Cowie amongst them – he preferred to stay with realism. The area of Maida Vale in London was also very familiar to the artist, as the Ardizzone family had lived there since 1920. He studied first at Armstrong College in Newcastle, and then at the Royal College of Art, London (1922-1927). Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain was published by Oxford University Press in both London and New York that year. As a student he visited Fry’s (1910) Post-Impressionist exhibition at the Grafton Galleries, and whilst he was enthralled by the use of colour, he judged the work neglectful of content.

In 1951 Trevelyan married Mary Fedden (see artists) and the couple travelled widely, in Europe, Africa, India and the USA, before settling in London, Durham Wharf, on the banks of the River Thames, where he set up his etching studio.Born in 1890, her family also had business interests in newspaper publishing, and she grew up in the family mansion Toorak House where, subsequent to her training in art, she would set up her studio. He was an official war artist during World War II, working widely in Europe and North Africa, and his illustrated diaries are notable records. In March of that year he went to Cairo and joined the British First Army on its march to Tunisia, and then joined the Eighth Army. The commission was to become the first of the many illustrated texts for which he would be best known, excitedly completed after having lived and dreamt that book for three whole months.

Ardizzone's influence is felt even today amongst modern children's book illustrators almost as strongly as it was during his lifetime. One of his happiest collaborations was that with Eleanor Farjeon, especially on The Little Bookroom (Oxford, 1955 collection). He also illustrated a re-telling of the Don Quixote story for children by James Reeves and his illustrations for The Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley are regarded as classics in their own right.Here, for one year prior to the beginning of the war, Vaughan and Passmore would reside, painting, listening to music and visiting the ballet. Other famous commissions included illustrations for Clive King's Stig of the Dump, whose iconic cover art helped place the book alongside the greats of children's literature to remain on bookshelves ever since. Beside writing and illustrating his own books, Ardizzone also illustrated books written by others, including some editions of Anthony Trollope and H.