Adam Hargreaves was born in 1963 in Surrey, England. He is the son of Roger Hargreaves who created the Mr. Men and Little Miss series. Adam was the inspiration for the series when, at the age of eight, he asked his father 'What does a tickle look like?' In response, Roger drew a figure with a round orange body and long, rubbery arms and Mr. Tickle was born.
When Roger died suddenly in 1988, Adam Hargreaves took over as the author and illustrator of his father's popular Mr. Men series. Although he had been to art college, Adam saw art as a hobby until then and had never drawn the Mr. Men before. He admits that it took a few years to learn to draw them as his father drew in a very different style. His titles include Mr. Birthday and Little Miss Birthday, which were published in 2006 to celebrate 35 years of the Mr. Men, and a very successful range of sparkly Mr. Men titles which feature the Mr. Men and Little Misses with favourite fairytale characters.
In October 2006, Adam Hargreaves also created the first Little Miss character based on a real person when Little Miss Stella appeared in a limited edition of 1,000 books produced as invitations for Stella McCartney's Paris fashion show. When the rights to the Mr. Men characters were sold to the entertainment group Chorion in 2004, Adam joined the company as a creative consultant. When he is not working on the Mr. Men, he pursues his other ambition, which is oil painting.