Writers

Add to researchQuentin Blake

Quentin Blake

Cape

Born
Kent
Genre
Children, Graphic novels / Illustration
 
 
Biography
Quentin Blake is one of Britain's most successful illustrators and children's authors.

He was born in 1932, reading English at Cambridge, then studying teaching at the University of London, and life classes at Chelsea Art School. He has always made his living as an illustrator, as well as teaching for over twenty years at The Royal College of Art, where he was head of the Illustration department from 1978 to 1986. His first drawings were published in Punch at the age of sixteen, and he continued to draw for Punch, The Spectator and other magazines for many years, while entering the world of children's books with his first book as an illustrator, A Drink of Water and Other Stories by John Yeoman, in 1960.

He has illustrated nearly 300 books, and is known for his collaboration with writers such as Russell Hoban, Joan Aiken and Michael Rosen. He is the major illustrator for Roald Dahl books, including The BFG, The Witches, Matilda and Esio Trot, all of which have won major prizes.

He has also written and illustrated his own books, for which he has also won awards, starting with Patrick which was published in 1968, and including Angelo (1970), which was later used as the basis for a children's opera. He is the creator of much-loved characters such as Mister Magnolia and Mrs Armitage.

He was awarded an OBE in 1988, and a CBE in 2005, for services to Children's Literature. In 1990, he was voted "The Illustrator's Illustrator" by Observer Magazine and in 1999, was appointed the first ever Children's Laureate, a post designed to raise the profile of children's literature. He has also won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration.

Melanie McDonagh, of the Daily Telegraph,  writes, 'I've never met a child who didn't love Quentin Blake.'


 

Critical Perspective

The energy and mischievous humour of Quentin Blake’s art, as well as its compassionate social awareness, are evident in his award-winning children’s picture book Clown (1995).

Without dialogue, it has the purity of a silent film, creating movement and telling its delightful story entirely through pictures. After being thrown out with other toys, a clown doll flips itself out of a trashcan, joins a fancy dress parade, is chased by a dog, and is then thrown accidentally into a poor high-rise apartment. There his antics help to quiet a crying child, and he helps the harassed babysitter to tidy the apartment. Then they all go out into the city, against a vivid red sky and grey city buildings, and retrieve the others. By the time the child’s mother comes home, the clown has become a loved toy again. Characteristically, the book also conveys an underlying moral theme, about rejection and connectedness.

Blake’s dynamic pen strokes typically create odd, unruly characters, almost always seen in concert with children, rendering them in a sprightly manner. As Sue Hubbard, an art critic writing in The Independent, has observed: ‘His drawing is wonderfully free and playful, the colour bleeding with carefree abandon over the ink outlines to give a sense of movement and vitality’. He is now one of Britain’s most popular artists, and so recognizable have Blake’s illustrations become, that his gently anarchic images have spread to greetings cards. In 1999 he was appointed the first Children’s Laureate, and his achievement has recently been marked by a major retrospective exhibition: ‘Quentin Blake: Fifty Years of Illustration’, held at Somerset House in London in 2004. His work was also a major part of the British Council's 'Magic Pencil' Exhibition which began touring the world in 2002, and there are apparently future plans for a Quentin Blake Gallery.

Blake started out precociously, having drawings in Punch magazine while still a schoolboy in 1949, and becoming a regular contributor. He has been a prolific artist since then, returning to teaching in 1965 as a part-time tutor at the Royal College of Art, where today he is a visiting professor. Among his significant book illustrations have been those for Russell Hoban, starting with How Tom Beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen (1974), and the late Joan Aiken’s Arabel and Mortimer (1980), responding especially to her bizarre fantasy elements, horses with eight folding legs and magical motor cars. His drawings for Michael Rosen’s book of children’s verse Quick, Let’s Get Out of Here (1983) are perhaps typical, children and play being a perennial subject in Blake’s work. Here they are shown at play, doing the washing up, or consuming ‘mad meals’ (including matchbox on toast) and ‘mad drinks’ (fizzy mouse, hot petrol, paint shake). Such items recall Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes, and indeed for a whole generation of children and young adults, Blake’s collaboration with Dahl has been his most important. Blake’s illustrations are integral to books such as The Twits (1980), The BFG (1982), and The Witches (1983). ‘Part of the huge appeal of the Dahl/ Blake collaboration is their understanding of a child’s need to subvert the adult world. In this the foul Twits perfectly fit the bill’, observes Sue Hubbard. We see the food particles in Mr Twit’s whiskers, and the wormy spaghetti fed to him by Mrs Twit.  The BFG (The Big Friendly Giant) is a lovable ogre with elephant ears and a leather jerkin, while the cover of Roald Dahl’s Dirty Beasts (1984) has two children wary of animals with predatory smiles. Dahl’s disconcertingly funny poems tell us of a ‘wonderfully clever pig’ that eats its owner, and ‘Crocky-Wock the Crocodile’ takes bed-sheets in its mouth to terrify a small boy and his father. A scorpion, porcupine, and even an ant-eater wreak havoc, and then there is a boy and his mother beset by ‘The Tummy Beast’.

Blake’s career as an author-illustrator began with Patrick in 1968, and this has become his main mode over the last two decades. Mister Magnolia (1980) is a typically spiky-haired character, with a waistcoat and bow tie, and carrying a trumpet. ‘Mr Magnolia has only one boot’, and the book proceeds by pursuing the end rhyme, somewhat in the manner of the ‘Dr. Seuss’ books. We see him juggling fruit, his sisters playing the flute, green parakeets pecking his suit, and in the most detailed picture he is riding a pedal scooter with six small children holding on to his leg. Blake repeats such a rhyming format in works such as Fantastic Daisy Artichoke (1999), in which two children are befriended by a joyously zany lady, and meet her pets. Another of Blake’s eccentrics is the heroine of the series of ‘Mrs Armitage’ books. In Mrs Armitage on Wheels (1987), for instance, her car gets converted into a motorbike by a succession of accidents, and she ends up joining a gang of friendly bikers.  Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave (1997) is another comically unlikely scenario, when she goes surfing accompanied by faithful dog Breakspear. The continuous thread in the story is her saying ‘What we need here is …’, and she proceeds to accumulate beach items and rescues a young girl, before finally riding a big wave. 

Some of his more recent works for children are essentially moral fables about the need for mutual care. Zagazoo (1998), for example, is about growing up. A couple take delivery of a strange parcel, which turns out to be a baby. It changes into a succession of alarming animals, including a screeching vulture, a baby elephant (‘How can we cope?’), and even a bad-tempered dragon. By the time it finally changes into a well-mannered young man, the couple have themselves become a pair of large brown pelicans. It ends with the cheery caption: ‘Isn’t life amazing!’ In the very funny Loveykins (2002), a middle-aged woman experiencing the ‘empty nest syndrome’ finds an abandoned bird after a storm and takes it home. We see her wrapping it up in a duvet, feeding it creamed carrots, éclairs, black forest gateau and even taking it into a shop (where it longingly gazes at a passing beetle). As ‘Augustus’ gets bigger she installs him in a garden shed, but after another storm, he becomes himself, a giant bird flapping his wings. Flying over many upturned smiling faces, this new freedom brings him ‘such prospects! such vistas!’

A Sailing Boat in the Sky (2002) returns to showing children in action, but also reflects Blake’s concerns with international problems of prejudice, pollution, war and the environment. This is a very simple but magical tale, as two children find and repair a broken boat, finding that they too can fly. They use it to rescue a talking stork, then some vulnerable children from persecution, and pick up Magda and her baby from a war zone. A fierce-looking but kind granny assists them, and they fix a new patchwork sail. ‘And what happened after that’, it concludes, ‘you will just have to imagine …’ Quentin Blake’s graphic eloquence, his funny, tender and joyously anarchic artwork, has made him not only one of the most important illustrators produced in Britain since the 1950s, but also one of the best-loved.

Dr Jules Smith, 2004

Bibliography

2010
Angelica Sprocket's Pockets, author/illustrator, Cape
2009
The Magic Finger, illustrator, Puffin
2009
Mr. Stink, illustrator, HarperCollins
2009
More About Bou: Roald Dahl's Tales of Childhood, illustrator, Farrar Straus Giroux
2009
Going Solo, illustrator, Puffin
2009
Daddy Lost His Head, illustrator, Cape
2009
Boy: Tales of Childhood, illustrator, Puffin
2008
You're Only Young Twice, author/illustrator, Andersen Press
2008
The Rights of the Reader, illustrator, Candlewick Press
2008
The Boy in the Dress, illustrator, HarperCollins
2008
The Birthday Book, editor with Michael Morpurgo, Cape
2008
Five Children and It, illustrator, Puffin
2006
On Angel Wings, illustrator, Egmont
2005
Life of Birds, author/illustrator, Doubleday
2005
Cock Crow, illustrator, Egmont
2004
Michael Rosen's Sad Book, illustrator, Walker
2004
Angel Pavement, author/illustrator, Cape
2003
Mrs Armitage: Queen of the Road, author/illustrator, Cape
2003
Father Christmas's Last Present, illustrator, Cape
2002
The Illustrated Christmas Cracker, illustrator, Doubleday
2002
The Best of Roald Dahl, illustrator, Folio Society
2002
Magic Pencil: Children's Book Illustration Today, contributor, British Council/British Library
2002
Loveykins, author/illustrator, Cape
2002
Laureate's Progress, author/illustrator, Cape
2002
A Sailing Boat in the Sky, author/illustrator, Cape
2001
Tell Me a Picture, author/part illustrator, National Gallery
2001
Roald Dahl's Even More Revolting Recipes, illustrator, Cape
2001
Promenade de Quentin Blake au Pays de la Poésie Française, author/illustrator, Gallimard
2001
More Muck and Magic: Stories from the Countryside, illustrator, Egmont
2001
Mini Sagas: From the Daily Telegraph Competition 2001, illustrator, Enitharmon
2001
Because a Fire Was in My Head: 101 Poems to Remember, illustrator, Faber and Faber
2000
Words and Pictures, author/illustrator, Cape
2000
Wizzil, illustrator, Bloomsbury
2000
The Laureate's Party, author/illustrator, Red Fox
2000
Smelly Jelly, Smelly Fish: The Seaside Book, illustrator, Walker
1999
Trouble on Thunder Mountain, illustrator, Faber and Faber
1999
The Heron and the Crane, illustrator, Hamish Hamilton
1999
Fantastic Daisy Artichoke, author/illustrator, Cape
1999
Drawing for the Artistically Undiscovered, co-author with John Cassidy/illustrator, Klutz
1998
Zagazoo, author/illustrator, Cape
1998
Up With Birds!, illustrator, Hamish Hamilton
1998
The seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, illustrator, Pavilion
1998
The Twelve Days of Christmas: Correspondence, illustrator, Doubleday
1998
The Green Ship, author/illustrator, Cape
1997
Ten Frogs: Dix Grenouilles, author/illustrator, Pavilion
1997
Tea in the Sugar Bowl: Potato in My Shoe, illustrator, Walker
1997
Cold Comfort Farm, illustrator, Folio Society
1997
Charlie's Secret Chocolate Book, illustrator, Puffin
1997
Charlie's Birthday Chocolate Book, illustrator, Puffin
1996
The Roald Dahl Quiz Book 2, illustrator, Puffin
1996
The Quentin Blake Book of Nonsense Stories, selector and illustrator, Viking (republished as The Puffin Book of Nonsense Stories, Puffin, 1997)
1996
Quentin Blake, author/illustrator, Beetles
1996
Breakfast with Dolly, illustrator, Collins & Brown
1995
The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote, illustrator, Folio Society
1995
The Complete Adventures of Charlie and Mr Willy Wonka, illustrator, Viking
1995
Mr Nodd's Ark, illustrator, Hamish Hamilton
1995
Meeting Midnight: Three Young Poems, illustrator, Prospero Books
1995
La Vie de la Page, illustrator, Gallimard
1995
Elephants Have Right of Way, illustrator, Cape
1995
Clown, author/illustrator, Cape
1995
A Handful of Gold, illustrator, Cape
1995
A Christmas Carol, illustrator, Pavilion
1994
The Winter Sleepwalker and Other Stories, illustrator, Cape
1994
The Roald Dahl Quiz Book, illustrator, Puffin
1994
The Quentin Blake Book of Nonsense Verse, selector and illustrator, Viking (republished as The Puffin Book of Nonsense Verse, Puffin, 1996)
1994
The Do-it-Yourself House That Jack Built, illustrator, Hamish Hamilton
1994
Meet the Authors and Illustrators: 60 Creators of favourite Children's Books, contributor, Scholastic
1993
The Singing Tortoise and Other Animal Folk Tales, illustrator, Gollancz
1993
The Family Album, illustrator, Hamish Hamilton
1993
Simpkin, author/illustrator, Cape
1993
My Year, illustrator, Cape
1993
Featherbrains, illustrator, Cape
1993
Cautionary Verses, illustrator, Cape
1992
The Midnight Folk, illustrator, Heinemann
1992
Cockatoos, author/illustrator, Cape
1991
The Vicar of Nibbleswicke, illustrator, Random Century
1991
The Princes' Gifts: Magic Folk Tales from Around the World, illustrator, Pavilion
1991
The Box of Delights, illustrator, Heinemann
1991
Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety, illustrator, British Railways Board
1991
Algernon and Other Cautionary Tales, illustrator, Cape
1990
Esio Trot, illustrator, Cape
1990
Alphabeasts, illustrator, Gollancz
1990
All Join In, author/illustrator, Cape
1989
The Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard's Dog, illustrator, Walker
1989
Rhyme Stew, illustrator, Cape
1989
Quentin Blake's ABC, author/illustrator, Cape
1989
Old Mother Hubbard's Dog Takes Up Sport, illustrator, Walker
1989
Old Mother Hubbard's Dog Needs a Doctor, illustrator, Walker
1989
Old Mother Hubbard's Dog Learns to Play, illustrator, Walker
1989
Old Mother Hubbard's Dog Dresses Up, illustrator, Walker
1989
Monsters, illustrator, Gollancz
1989
Great Green Limericks, illustrator, W.H. Allen
1989
Can You Get Warts from Touching Toads?, illustrator, Puffin
1988
Our Village, illustrator, Walker
1988
Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave, author/illustrator, Cape
1988
Matilda, illustrator, Cape
1987
Spollyolly-Diddly-Tiddlyitis, illustrator, Walker
1987
Mrs Armitage on Wheels, author/illustrator, Cape
1987
Hard-Boiled Legs, illustrator, Walker
1987
Cyril of the Apes, illustrator, Cape
1986
Under the Bed, illustrator, Walker
1986
The Rain Door, illustrator, Gollancz
1986
The Marzipan Pig, illustrator, Cape
1986
Frankie's Hat, illustrator, Viking Kestrel
1986
Ask Doctor Pete, illustrator, Cape
1985
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, illustrator, Cape
1985
Nursery Rhyme Book, author/illustrator, Collins
1985
Mortimer Says Nothing, illustrator, Cape
1985
Don't Put Mustard in the Custard, illustrator, Deutsch
1985
Cyril Bonhamy and Operation Ping, illustrator, Cape
1985
A Lamp for the Lambchops, illustrator, Methuen
1984
The Story of the Dancing Frog, author/illustrator, Cape
1984
The Hermit and the Bear, illustrator, Deutsch
1984
How the Camel Got his Hump, illustrator, Macmillan
1984
Crash! The Waldo and Wanda Book of Practical Hints, illustrator, Magnet
1983
The Witches, illustrator, Cape
1983
Quick, Let's Get Out of Here, illustrator, Deutsch
1983
Quentin Blake's Nursery Rhyme Book, author/illustrator, Cape
1983
Dirty Beasts, illustrator, Cape
1983
Cyril Bonhamy and the Great Drain Robbery, illustrator, Cape
1982
The Mystery of Mr Jones's Disappearing Taxi, illustrator, BBC
1982
The BFG, illustrator, Cape
1982
Scoop: A Novel About Journalists, illustrator, Folio Society
1982
Rumbelow's Dance, illustrator, Hamish Hamilton
1982
Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes, illustrator, Cape
1982
Mortimer's Portrait on Glass, illustrator, Cape
1982
Mortimer's Cross, illustrator, Cape
1982
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, illustrator, Pavilion
1981
You Can't Catch Me!, illustrator, Deutsch
1981
Up with Skool!: Children's Own Choice of the Best School Jokes, illustrator, Puffin
1981
McBroom and the Great Race, illustrator, Chatto & Windus
1981
George's Marvellous Medicine, illustrator, Cape
1981
Cyril Bonhamy v. Madam Big, illustrator, Cape
1980
What Difference Does it Make, Danny?, illustrator, Deutsch
1980
The Twits, illustrator, Cape
1980
The Twenty-Elephant Restaurant, illustrator, Cape
1980
Mister Magnolia, author/illustrator, Cape
1980
Black Mischief, illustrator, Folio Society
1980
Arabel and Mortimer, illustrator, BBC/Cape
1980
Ace Dragon Ltd, illustrator, Cape
1979
The Wild Washerwomen: A New Folk Tale, illustrator, Hamish Hamilton
1979
The Spiral Stair, illustrator, BBC
1979
The Bakerloo Flea, illustrator, Longman
1979
Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur, illustrator, BBC
1979
Horseshoe Harry and the Whale, illustrator, Dobson
1979
Custard and Company, editor/illustrator, Kestrel
1979
A Feast of True Fandangles, illustrator, W.H. Allen
1978
The Terrible Kidnapping of Cyril Bonhamy, illustrator, Evans
1978
The Great Piratical Rumbustication; & The Librarian and the Robbers, illustrator, Dent
1978
The Enormous Crocodile, illustrator, Cape
1978
Funny Business, illustrator, Puffin
1978
Agaton Sax and Lispington's Grandfather Clock, illustrator, Deutsch
1977
Willy the Squowse, illustrator, Cape
1977
The Young Performing Horse, illustrator, Hamish Hamilton
1977
Of Quarks, Quasars and Other Quirks: Quizzical Poems for the Supersonic Age, illustrator, Thomas Y. Crowell, U.S.
1977
Non-Stop Nonsense, illustrator, Dent
1977
Monster and the Toy Sale, illustrator, Longman
1977
Monster and the Surprise Cookie, illustrator, Longman
1977
Monster and the Mural, illustrator, Longman
1977
Monster Goes to the Hospital, illustrator, Longman
1977
Monster Goes to the Circus, illustrator, Longman
1977
Monster Goes to the Beach, illustrator, Longman
1977
Monster Goes Around the Town, illustrator, Longman
1977
Monster Gets a Job, illustrator, Longman
1977
Monster Buys a Pet, illustrator, Longman
1977
Lady Monster has a Plan, illustrator, Longman
1977
Lady Monster and the Bike Ride, illustrator, Longman
1977
Lady Monster Helps Out, illustrator, Longman
1976
The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits, illustrator, Folio Society
1976
The Bed Book, illustrator, Faber and Faber
1976
Mortimer's Tie, illustrator, BBC
1976
Monster and the Magic Umbrella, illustrator, Longman
1976
Monster Comes to the City, illustrator, Longman
1976
McBroom's Zoo, illustrator, Chatto & Windus
1976
Here Comes McBroom!, illustrator, Chatto & Windus
1976
Agaton Sax and the Big Rig, illustrator, Deutsch
1975
Thoughts and Aphorisms from the fruits of Meditation of Kozma Prutkov, illustrator, Royal College of Art
1975
The Puffin Book of Improbable Records, illustrator, Puffin
1975
The Incredible Kidnapping, illustrator, Heinemann
1975
Peter and Molly's Revision Book, illustrator, BBC
1975
Lester at the Seaside, author/illustrator, Collins
1975
Lester and the Unusual Pet, author/illustrator, Collins
1975
Kidnapped at Christmas: A Play for Children, illustrator, French/Heinemann
1975
Great Day for Up!, illustrator, Collins
1975
Agaton Sax and the Haunted House, illustrator, Deutsch
1975
A Near Thing for Captain Najork, illustrator, Cape
1974
Wouldn't You Like to Know?, illustrator, Deutsch
1974
The Puffin Joke Book, illustrator, Puffin
1974
The Bread Bin, illustrator, BBC
1974
The 'Reader's Digest' Pocket Treasury of Wit and Wisdom, illustrator, Reader's Digest
1974
Mortimer's Bread Bin, illustrator, BBC
1974
Mind Your Own Business, illustrator, Deutsch
1974
How Tom Beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen, illustrator, Cape
1974
Grimble; & Grimble at Christmas, illustrator, Puffin
1974
Beatrice and Vanessa, illustrator, Hamish Hamilton
1974
Agaton Sax and the League of Silent Exploders, illustrator, Deutsch
1973
Wizards Are a Nuisance, illustrator, BBC
1973
Uncle and the Battle for Badgetown, illustrator, Cape
1973
The Thingummy-jig, illustrator, BBC
1973
The Lions Book of Young Verse, illustrator, Collins
1973
Snuff, author/illustrator, Cape
1973
Mr Son-in-Law the Hippopotamus, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1973
Monster on the Bus, illustrator, Longman
1973
Monster has a Party, illustrator, Longman
1973
Monster Meets Lady Monster, illustrator, Longman
1973
Monster Looks for a House, illustrator, Longman
1973
Monster Looks for a Friend, illustrator, Longman
1973
Monster Goes to the Zoo, illustrator, Longman
1973
Monster Goes to the Museum, illustrator, Longman
1973
Monster Goes to School, illustrator, Longman
1973
Monster Cleans his House, illustrator, Longman
1973
Eating, illustrator, Longman
1973
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, illustrator, Allen & Unwin
1973
Arabel and the Escaped Black Mamba, illustrator, BBC
1973
Agaton Sax and the London Computer Plot, illustrator, Deutsch
1972
Pigeon of Paris, illustrator, Blackie
1972
Mouse Trouble, illustrator, Hamish Hamilton
1972
McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm, illustrator, Chatto & Windus
1972
Arabel's Raven, illustrator, BBC
1972
Agaton Sax and the Colossus of Rhodes, illustrator, Deutsch
1971
The Witch's Cat, illustrator, Blackie
1971
The Birds, illustrator, Lion and Unicorn Press
1971
The Ages of Man: From Sav-age to Sew-age, illustrator, American Heritage, U.S.
1971
Sixes and Sevens, illustrator, Blackie
1971
Puzzles and Quizzles, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1971
Play School Play Ideas, illustrator, BBC
1971
Agaton Sax and the Criminal Doubles, illustrator, Deutsch
1970
The Good Tiger, illustrator, Cape
1970
The Birthday Party, illustrator, Longman
1970
The Bear's Water Picnic, illustrator, Blackie
1970
Kibby's Big Feat, illustrator, Follett, U.S.
1970
Hogmanay and Tiffany: The Names of Feasts and Fasts, illustrator, Bles
1970
Fantastic Mr Fox, illustrator, Allen & Unwin
1970
Angelo, author/illustrator, Cape
1970
Agaton Sax and the Max Brothers, illustrator, Deutsch
1970
'Quote and Unquote', illustrator, Arcadia Press for Diners Club
1969
Your Animal Poems, illustrator, Gordon Fraser
1969
Uncle and Claudius the Camel, illustrator, Cape
1969
The First Elephant Comes to Ireland, illustrator, Follett, U.S.
1969
The Bear's Winter House, illustrator, Blackie
1969
Success with English: The Penguin Course, illustrator, Penguin
1969
Mr Horrox and the Grath, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1969
Living with Technology, illustrator, Hodder & Stoughton
1969
Jack and Nancy, illustrator, Cape
1969
Gillygaloos and Gollywhoppers: Tall Tales About Mythical Monsters, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1969
Alphabet Soup, illustrator, Faber and Faber
1969
Agaton Sax and the Scotland Yard Mystery, illustrator, Deutsch
1969
A Band of Angels, illustrator, Gordon Fraser Gallery
1968
Put onYour Thinking Cap, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1968
Patrick, author/illustrator, Cape
1968
Listen and Read with Peter and Molly, illustrator, BBC
1968
Albert the Dragon and the Centaur, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1967
Uncle and the Treacle Trouble, illustrator, Cape
1967
Tiny Tall Tales, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1967
Luke's Garden, illustrator, Heinemann
1967
Give a Dog a Good Name, illustrator, Hutchinson
1967
Bits and Pieces, illustrator, Heinemann
1966
Uncle and his Detective, illustrator, Cape
1966
Puzzles for Pleasure and Leisure, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1966
Home Economics, illustrator, Heinemann
1966
Around the World in Eighty Days, illustrator, Chatto & Windus
1966
Aristide, illustrator, Hutchinson
1965
Uncle Cleans Up, illustrator, Cape
1965
The P-P-Penguin Patrick Campbell, illustrator, Penguin
1965
Rough Hubandry, illustrator, Hutchinson
1965
Pun Fun, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1965
Motoring and the Motorist, illustrator, BBC
1965
Aphrodisiacs in Your Garden, illustrator, Mayflower
1965
Agaton Sax and the Diamond Thieves, illustrator, Deutsch
1964
Uncle, illustrator, Cape
1964
The Oxford Books of Stories for Juniors, Volume 3: What Happened Next, illustrator, Oxford University Press
1964
The Next-Doors, illustrator, Heinemann
1964
The Gentle Knight, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1964
Riddles Riddles Everywhere, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1964
Gardeners' Question Time, illustrator, BBC
1964
Further Adventures of Albert the Dragon, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1963
Tales of a Wicked Uncle, illustrator, Cape
1963
How to Become a Scratch Golfer, illustrator, Blond
1963
Brewing Up in the Basement, illustrator, Hutchinson
1962
Punky: Mouse for a Day, illustrator, Faber and Faber
1962
Listen and I'll Tell You, illustrator, Blackie
1962
Constantly in Pursuit, illustrator, Hutchinson
1961
The Wonderful Button, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1961
The Boys' Country Book, illustrator, Collins
1961
The Boy Who Sprouted Antlers, illustrator, Faber and Faber
1961
Good Morning, Miss Dove, illustrator, Penguin
1961
Albert the Dragon, illustrator, Abelard-Schuman
1960
Come Here till I Tell You, illustrator, Hutchinson
1960
A Drink of Water and Other Stories, illustrator, Faber and Faber

Awards

2010
Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Angelica, shortlist
2008
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, shortlist
2005
CBE
2002
Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration
1999
Children's Laureate
1998
Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Bronze Award), The Green Ship, 6-8 years category
1998
Kurt Maschler Award, The Green Ship
1996
Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Bronze Award), Clown, 0-5 years category
1996
National Art Library Illustration Award, Clown, shortlist
1996
Bologna Ragazzi Prize (Italy), Clown
1995
Kate Greenaway Medal, Clown, shortlist
1990
Kurt Maschler Award, All Join In
1988
OBE
1981
Red House Children's Book Award, Mister Magnolia, Overall Winner
1980
Kate Greenaway Medal, Mister Magnolia