Topsy and Tim is a series of children's books written by Jean Adamson and Gareth Adamson about twins and their adventures with their new friends. They were first published in 1960 and were relaunched in new editions in February 2003.^[1]

Since 1960 more than 130 Topsy and Tim titles have been published with sales of more than 21 million.

Origin

In an interview with The Guardian,^[2] Jean Adamson said that she and her future husband had been trained as book illustrators at Goldsmiths College. They decided to get married and quit their jobs in order to write and illustrate their own children's books. Their approach was shaped by a visit to a children's bookshop in Newcastle where they realised that there were few books depicting actual contemporary children. She explained that the books were also influenced by the post-war mood:

At that time, not so terribly long after the end of the war, England was just waking up, bright colours were coming in, there was a lovely optimistic feeling in the air. So I said “Why don't we do books with real live little children in, with the little adventures and so on that they have in the house?" ^[2]

Television series

The books have been adapted for television twice.

Bevanfield Films

Firstly by Bevanfield Films for BBC Studios Home Entertainment, 60 episode 5 minute animated series narrated by Roger Blake and was shown on ITV.

CBeebies

In 2013, a 13-minute live-action series was made for CBeebies, with 3 series produced and 71 episodes made. Further details can be seen here: List of Topsy and Tim episodes. No further episodes have been planned as of 2024. The series was produced by Darrall Macqueen and distributed globally by WildBrain. Series 1 and 2 was filmed from March 2013 to October 2013, the Christmas Special was filmed in December 2013 and Series 3 was filmed from June 2015 to August 2015.

Characters

List of books