Tim Hopgood, author and illustrator shares his love of Louis Armstrong’s world-famous song What a Wonderful World and takes us behind the scenes of making it into a picture book and getting it published. One Father’s Day about five, six years ago my daughter gave me an old vinyl copy of Louis Armstrong’s rendition of What A […]
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I love the comparison that’s often made between picture books and theatre. I’ve always felt shy about being on stage, but in illustrating picture books, I discovered I could be director, stage designer and a whole cast of actors, all from behind the scenes. For my latest book, this analogy even helped me discover a […]
Read moreWith his lovely new board books about to hit the shops, Winnie the Witch’s lovable cat Wilbur joins us to reflect on his best moments so far in his adventures with Winnie… They say that cats have nine lives. Well it’s certainly true in my case! I can think of nine nail-biting (or should that […]
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Karen George shares her journey to becoming a published illustrator, with a little help from Waterstones and Julia Donaldson… In 2009, I won the Waterstones/Macmillan ‘Picture This’ competition, beating 900 hopeful unpublished illustrators to the top prize of illustrating Freddie and the Fairy for Julia Donaldson . The timing of the competition was perfect for me, my […]
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Author and illustrator Charlotte Middleton introduces the wonderful Christopher Nibble’s latest eco-adventure! Coming up with an idea for the next Christopher Nibble story was a bit of a challenge. We’ve already established that Christopher is a plucky, forward thinking and considerate guinea pig. In his adventures so far he’s prevented the whole town of Dandeville from running […]
Read moreOur lovely marketing manager Nicola Gray celebrates the publication of the paperback edition of Chickens Can’t See in the Dark by sharing a whole host of weird and wonderful chicken and carrot facts. This month we are celebrating the publication of Chickens Can’t See in the Dark in paperback, a fun story with the added bonus of encouraging kids to eat their carrots! It’s the tale of a plucky […]
Read morePicture book author Ann Bonwill on the key to tackling preschool social issues in picture books (without need of a soapbox) When my editor, Helen, expressed interest in a sequel to I Don’t Want to be a Pea! , I was thrilled. I had come to love my characters, Hugo and Bella, and the chance to write about them again was exciting. […]
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