If your mother is one of the world's best-loved children's authors who has written more than 70 books and sold well in excess of 11.5 million copies, you might think about taking a different career path.

Not Clara Vulliamy.

Undaunted by the success of her mother Shirley Hughes, whose creations include Dogger and the Alfie series, Vulliamy has followed her lead.

She has written and illustrated 25 children's books and -- like her mother -- wrote her first book soon after having children of her own.

Now the mother-daughter team have collaborated for the first time on a new series called "Dixie O'Day", written by Hughes and illustrated by Vulliamy, with the first book to be published in September 2013.

It will be the first time in a career spanning 53 years that Hughes, 85, has had her words illustrated by someone else.

She said it was "absolutely marvelous" to work with her daughter.

"I loved it," said Hughes. "Clara's illustrations surprised as well as delighted me. She put things into the book I would never have dreamed of doing myself."

Vulliamy's influence is immediately apparent: Hughes's books are known for their realistic portrayal of everyday family dramas, from lost toys to days at the seaside.

But, at Vulliamy's suggestion, the heroes of Dixie O'Day are two dogs in suits. She is used to writing about animals, while her mother never before has.

"I just can't put into words how much I have enjoyed it," said Vulliamy, 50, of working with her mother.

"We sat at the same kitchen table working together in the house that I grew up in. We came up with the story together and talked about the illustrations. We laughed a lot."

Vulliamy insists she was never intimated by following such a successful mother.

"She is such a treasured part of so many people's family lives," said Vulliamy. "That doesn't make me feel daunted. I feel 10 feet tall."

Vulliamy is the youngest of three children of Hughes and her late husband John Vulliamy and it was obvious from a young age she had inherited her mother's talent for words and pictures.

"I knew Clara was going to draw, from the earliest years," said Hughes. "She was especially interested in narrative drawing - telling a story in pictures - which was just the same with me when I was small."

Vulliamy grew up watching her mother drawing, but had no idea that she was a famous author.

"I didn't really realize she was famous at any point when I was a child," she said.

"It might be because children are taken up with themselves. I just thought she was my mum. It wasn't until I was grown up that I realized."

Vulliamy also said her mother neither read her own books to her children nor taught them to draw, but remembers her work being pushed to one side of the table in their home in west London at mealtimes.