 When Tourtel retired from creating Rupert Bear stories in 1935, the stories were quickly continued in 1935 by Alfred Bestall until he also retired from his work on Rupert stories in 1965.Sheila Hodgetts was the daughter of the Managing Director of Sampson, Low, at that time a major children's publishing company, with the publishing rights for Tourtel's Rupert Bear Stories, and, later, Enid Blyton's “Noddy” stories, and many others.Hodgetts says, “After Mary Tourtel died, my father asked me to write something in the same vein to replace them, and so Toby was born” (Hockley p 7).