The children's author and illustrator Val Biro, who has died aged 92, was best known as the creator of Gumdrop, an aged vintage car with very human characteristics and a remarkable capacity for adventures. Drawing on his passion for the 1926 Austin 12-4 that he owned, Biro wrote and illustrated Gumdrop: The Adventures of a Vintage Car (1966). His vigorous illustrations and eventful text begin with Gumdrop under threat after he has been stolen and crashed by burglars and had smaller parts removed by shady characters. These attacks on the elderly car leave Gumdrop in sad decline and ready for little but the scrapheap. The arrival of Mr Oldcastle, a vintage car fanatic clearly modelled on Biro himself, leads to the rescue and rebuilding of Gumdrop just in time for him to win a vintage car rally. The final spread shows a cross-section of a 1926 Austin just in case any eager readers want to try their own car maintenance.
The idea for the book had been proposed to Biro by a publisher who heard him talking animatedly about his newly acquired vintage car. The notion was a good one; the car was quickly a star and more than 35 picture books followed, including Gumdrop Forever (1988), Gumdrop and the Martians (1998) and Gumdrop's School Adventure (2001). For Biro, the car was an endless source of inspiration and he effortlessly created new titles at the rate of more than one a year, adding new adventures and also keeping up with changes in contemporary life. He said: "As with other vintage car nuts, the old vehicle is my pride and joy, so it is very natural that I should go on writing about it, and feel enthusiastic about doing so."
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