Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury reunite to create exclusive festive tale for the Big Issue

Wednesday 03 December: Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury – the duo behind the all-time children’s classic picture book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and straight off the back of Oh Dear, Look What I’ve Got! have reunited to create a poignant new festive tale for the Big Issue.

Set to be published exclusively in next week’s Big Issue on Monday 8 December, Pax: A Festive Tale tells the stirring and timely story of a family living on the breadline whose cat Pax ventures out into the cold after they’re unable to afford food for him.

The pair have just published their first collaboration together in 36 years, with their brand-new picture book Oh Dear, Look What I Got! and they decided, hot on its heels to create their third ever story together, exclusively for the Big Issue! Rosen, a former Children’s Laureate, has masterminded the heartfelt story with Oxenbury, twice-winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration, has illustrated Pax: A Festive Tale.

Michael Rosen said: “The Big Issue do exceptional work enabling their homeless and vulnerable vendors to have some stability by selling the Big Issue. So, I do the thing that I can do to support them, which is to write.

“I’ve written a seasonal story for the Big Issue alongside a wonderful illustration by Helen Oxenbury capturing the poignancy of Pax: A Festive Tale. I love Helen’s vision to illustrate the story from the perspective of ‘we’ the viewer, looking in ‘over the shoulder’ of what the mum and daughter see through the window.”

Little Evie and her mum’s ensuing quest to find their beloved Pax highlights the brutal reality currently being endured by 3.8 million Brits living in destitution – where people cannot afford to meet their most basic physical needs to stay warm, dry, clean and fed.

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, rates of destitution in the UK have more than doubled since 2017. They predict more than one million children will be experiencing destitution this Christmas.

Helen Oxenbury said: “I was delighted when I read Michael’s poignant story to be able to contribute to the wonderful work of the Big Issue. Reading Michael’s story about Pax the cat, felt so in step with the Big Issue especially at this time of year.

“My contribution was to illustrate his story, and I immediately felt that the emotion was the characters on the outside in the cold looking in… Michael’s only request to me, was could the cat please be black? And as that’s the only visual note he has ever asked of me in over 30 years, of course, I have made Pax a black cat (as I know that Michael has two cats – who are mostly black!).”

Paul McNamee, UK Editor of Big Issue, said: “This is a remarkable, ultimately heart-warming story from Michael. To have him and Helen team up again to create something so unique for Big Issue is a wonderful Christmas gift. We’re hugely grateful. Pax and Evie’s story feels right at home in our pages. It’s the story of the kind of struggle so many people face every day, but it also shows that hope carries. 

“At Christmas time, people’s minds are more focused on those without. They know that Big Issue is means for positive change and a way to break the grinding weight of poverty. There is always a good reason to buy Big Issue, to take it home, to enjoy it and know that by doing so, you’re making a tangible difference to people’s lives. This story adds a very big extra positive element.”

You can read Pax: A Festive Tale by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury exclusively in next week’s Big Issue, out Monday 8 December.

Oh Dear, Look What I’ve Got! by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury is on sale now, Walker Books £12.99 hardback.