When time’s up we’re ushered out along the corridors to a staircase that museum staff have identified as the exact one that Scheffler has depicted, where an excited gaggle of east London schoolchildren awaits. So began a correspondence that continued over the years with requests to Scheffler to design letterheads for both Thompson and her actor mother, Phyllida Law. Scheffler still has the letter and has brought it along 34 years later to an interview to mark their first literary collaboration, on a children’s picture book, Jim’s Spectacular Christmas. So I always go, if I'm writing something for children, generally speaking, I go and do it in Scotland, because it's quiet.

Royal corgis do not come out of it so well: Thompson depicts a stoutly entitled one chasing poor Jim out of the palace. Morgan has merged six separate stories seamlessly into this funny, and often poignant, book that will thaw even the biggest Grinch’s heart. As well as adapting the joyful Nurse Matilda books into ther successful Nanny McPhee films in which she played the lead, she has written beautiful books for the Beatrix Potter estate, gently updating the author’s voice. Enter Lucy: she’s fighting to save her job, and ends up stranded at the Miller family home while on a business trip.He was playing Hamlet to her sister Sophie’s Ophelia and she wanted something to commemorate a moment in time. The card, drawn to Cole’s design by his artist friend John Horsley, still exists and copying it has given Scheffler an unprecedented opportunity to depict a child drinking wine: “That’s really not allowed in children’s books,” he points out. VIRGIN and the VIRGIN signature logo are registered trademarks of Virgin Enterprises Limited and are used under licence. And if you have, you’re sure to have stumbled upon festive matriarch Fanny Cradock and her myriad of seasonally instructional shows.

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. Are you even hosting this Christmas if you haven’t already flicked through the Food Network channel for inspiration? Then she trumps it, by announcing that she still has the envelope in which Scheffler sent the two pictures. Axel Scheffler was an unknown illustrator, working largely for Good Housekeeping magazine, when he received a letter in response to a small exhibition of his work.

It was from Emma Thompson, a young actor who had begun to attract attention with TV series such as Fortunes of War and Tutti Frutti. She opened her handbag, in which she had an unwrapped dog biscuit, and when she drew three circles over the head of three corgis they all rolled over.

Heartfelt, witty and full of fun, this children’s picture book is a sweet festive read – but at 80 pages (far beyond the norm for fans of Scheffler’s work) and with more complex language, it might be better suited at seven to nine-year-olds, rather than the pre-schoolers its artwork might suggest.

I mean, he'd meet a baby and shake his hand and go, ‘Hello, nice to meet you,’ and was quite forthright and firm with children. But I think actually it’s very likely that the Queen [Elizabeth] was quite fierce with them and that they were very well trained. From that inglorious beginning he goes on to become part of the 19th-century invention of Christmas, presenting Queen Victoria with the world’s first commercial Christmas card. The dynamics between all of the characters and their backstories stops Christmas On Winter Street from being overly sweet, and keeps it relatable.