
The 28th guest on Meet An Illustrator is Flavia Zorilla Drago, an author-illustrator from Mexico City currently shortlisted for the 2021 Klaus Flugge Prize with Gustavo The Shy Ghost. This excellent short video introduction to Flavia’s work begins with a selection of her childhood art: And here is some more background: Listen to Flavia talking all […]

We’re delighted to welcome Polly Noakes as the 27th guest on Meet An Illustrator, the regular weekend quick-fire Q&A. Polly, who has been illustrating children’s books since the 198os and now lives in rural north Yorkshire, having moved up there from the deep south just over a year ago, recently gave her Instagram followers a […]

The 26th guest—yes, this series has been going for half a year now—on Meet An Illustrator is Steve Small, whose debut children’s picture book I’m Sticking With You, written by Smriti Halls and an ACHUKA Book of the Day in May last year, was shortlisted for the 2021 Oscar’s Book Prize (for best under-fives book […]

The 25th guest on Meet An Illustrator is Tim Hopgood, whose recently-published board book, Wonderful World Of Colours, I have been enthusing about—it really is a superb board book. Tim published his first children’s book some 15 years ago, having started his career as a graphic designer on i-D and Vogue magazines, before turning […]

This week, on Meet An Illustrator, we are featuring an artist currently shortlisted for the 2021 Klaus Flugge Prize. This highly important children’s book award, named after the founder of Andersen Press, is presented annually to the most promising and exciting newcomer to children’s picture book illustration. John has been shortlisted for his illustrations to Booker […]

The twenty-third subject of Meet An Illustrator is Yuval Zommer, best known for his award-winning Big Book Of… series published by Thames & Hudson and sold in countries world-wide. The latest title, The Big Book of Belonging, publishes in September this year [2021]. He also produces a seasonal series for OUP that includes titles such […]

Rita’s Rabbit, a picture book by Laura Mucha and illustrated by Hannah Peck, was a recent ACHUKA Book of the Day, and we’re delighted that Hannah agreed to respond to the weekly Meet An Illustrator prompts by being the 22nd guest in our regular Saturday feature. Next month is an exciting one for Hannah, because […]

ACHUKA has been an admirer of Petr Horacek for years, so it’s a particular pleasure to have him as our twenty-first guest answering the weekly illustrator questions. Why do we love his work? Because of its fresh colours and childcentredness. Petr Horacek grew up in Czechoslovakia and lived through the 1989 revolution when he was […]

Brita Granström was born in 1969 in Sweden. She moved to the UK when she was 23 and has illustrated over 100 children’s books. She is also an established painter with a recent sell-out solo show at Thompson’s Gallery (Leaves of Lockdown). She is an Honorary Fellow of the English Association. With her husband, Mick Manning, […]

Mick Manning has been collaborating with his wife, the illustrator Brita Granstrom, on children’s picture books (mainly non-fiction) since the 1990s. Their first book together, The World Is Full Of Babies, won the Smarties Silver Prize in 1996. A later book—How Did I Begin?—caused some discussion because of its frank explanation of conception. Mick’s solo […]

There have been some wonderful illustrated books published already this year but one of the highlights of 2021 is still to come—and there’s now only a short time (a month) to wait. Following on from last year’s landmark, illustrated Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland comes Chris Ridell’s Through The Looking Glass And What Alice Found There […]

I first got the idea for a weekly Meet An Illustrator feature when reading a Twitter post from our 17th guest about her favourite pens and where to buy them—so it’s an enormous pleasure to welcome Sarah McIntyre. Sarah is known both for her solo illustrated books and for her collaborations with Philip Reeve. She is also […]

The 16th guest on Meet An Illustrator is Camilla Pintonato, an illustrator, graphic designer and author based in Venice, Italy. Visit the feature’s backpages to discover who previous illustrator guests have been. We have picked two books illustrated by Camilla in successive months as Book of the Day choices. In March we chose Chickenology an irresistibly playful non-fiction […]

The 15th guest on Meet An Illustrator is Paddy Donnelly, an Irish illustrator now based in Belgium. Visit the feature’s backpages to discover who previous illustrator guests have been. Paddy Donnelly’s illustrations have recently been seen in two picture books. Hom by Jeanne Willis Here Be Dragons by Susannah Lloyd And just published by the independent […]

ACHUKA is thrilled to have David Litchfield as the 14th guest on Meet An Illustrator, an informal weekend feature introduced this year.. Do visit the backpages to read the responses from previous guests. The Bear And The Piano, David’s debut picture book, was published just 5 years ago, but he is already established as one of the […]

After taking a week’s break at Easter, Meet An Illustrator is back with Kate Milner, our 13th guest in the weekend feature. Do visit the backpages to read the responses from the first dozen guests. Kate Milner was winner of the 2016 V&A student illustration award for her book My Name Is Not Refugee, which went […]

ACHUKA is delighted to bring you Tom Knight as the 12th guest in our weekly (every Saturday) Meet An Illustrator feature. Do visit the backpages of this feature to discover who the first eleven guests were. When choosing the chapter book Good Knight, Bad Knight And The Flying Machine as her Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week in […]

Marie Voigt is the 11th guest in our weekly (every Saturday) Meet An Illustrator feature. Do visit the backpages of this feature to discover who the first ten guests were. Let’s begin by allowing Marie to introduce herself. In this short video she explains what inspired her—despite already having a successful career in TV, branding and graphic […]

We are already at the 10th guest in our weekly (every Saturday) Meet An Illustrator and we’re very pleased to welcome Ian Beck. [Visit the backpages of this feature.] Ian is now in his seventies and still hard at work creating. His best-known work is probably the album cover for Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Here is a […]

ACHUKA’s 9th guest in our weekly (every Saturday) Meet An Illustrator slot is Mini Grey. All previous features in this series are being archived week by week on this page: https://www.achuka.co.uk/blog/meet-an-illustrator/ Mini Grey won the 2007 Kate Greenaway Medal for The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon (2006) having won the Horn Book Award (in America) in 2005 for […]

ACHUKA’s 8th guest in our weekly (every Saturday) Meet An Illustrator slot is Armin Greder. All previous features in this series are being archived week by week on this page: https://www.achuka.co.uk/blog/meet-an-illustrator/ Born in Switzerland, but living and working in Australia after 1970 and for the last ten years in Peru, Greder is an uncompromising picture book artist […]

We welcome our seventh guest to ACHUKA’s Meet An Illustrator slot—Jenny Løvlie. All previous features in this series are being archived week by week on this page: https://www.achuka.co.uk/blog/meet-an-illustrator/ Now based in Cardiff, Jenny grew up in northern Norway, in Ekkerøy, a tiny village with a population of under 50 and where she was the first child to […]

The sixth guest in ACHUKA’s new Meet An Illustrator feature is Emily Gravett. If you missed the earlier ones, don’t worry, they are being archived week by week on this page: https://www.achuka.co.uk/blog/meet-an-illustrator/ Emily Gravett was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal for her debut picture book, Wolves, and ACHUKA has been a fan ever since. She […]

The fifth guest in ACHUKA’s new Meet An Illustrator feature is Keith Robinson. If you missed the earlier ones, don’t worry, they are collected week by week on this page: https://www.achuka.co.uk/blog/meet-an-illustrator/ Keith is based near Lyme Regis and has been a freelance illustrator since 2001. After graduating in graphics and illustration in 1992, he worked […]

We’re delighted to have Dapo Adeola as the fourth guest in ACHUKA’s new Meet An Illustrator feature. Did you miss the earlier ones? Don’t fret, they are being collected week by week on this page: https://www.achuka.co.uk/blog/meet-an-illustrator/ Dapo has campaigned on behalf of illustrators to ensure their work is properly acknowledged whenever titles in which they have […]

We’re delighted to have Debi Gliori as the third guest in ACHUKA’s new Meet An Illustrator feature. Did you miss the first one with Jim Field? The second one with James Mayhew? I daren’t count them all, but Debi must have published nearly 100 picture books, both by herself (the Mr Bear series has sold […]

We’re delighted to have James Mayhew as the second guest in ACHUKA’s new Meet An Illustrator feature, which launched last week with Jim Field. James is an amazing ambassador of art and music for children, and he has a huge number of adult followers on Twitter who appreciate his #BookIllustrationOfTheDay hashtag posts. He is probably […]

We’re delighted to have Jim Field as the first subject of our new Meet An Illustrator feature. Jim’s first picture book was Cats Ahoy written by Peter Bently, which won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize in 2011. He has become known for drawing frogs on logs since the picture book Oi Frog! written by Kes Gray […]