I used to be a child. Here is the hard evidence (left):
(That’s me as Dorothy in a school production of the Wizard of Oz.)
As a child, I spent many hours shut away in my bedroom writing and illustrating picture stories. Everything from tales about a man and his pet monkey, to (later) teen romances. Oh, and fashion designs. Because as well as writing, I was a ‘really good drawrer’.
This meant I did get some admiration (‘draw me a horse! Draw me a cat!) which is just as well as I was shorter than everybody else, rubbish at sport and generally odd in an introverted, day-dreamy sort of way, so very prone to having the chair removed from beneath me and things like that. Here’s a drawing I did for a school production of The Wizard of Oz (right) . (Interesting, isn’t it, that I depicted Dorothy with long blonde hair and long legs. Definitely a case of wishful thinking.)
Then I grew up. No I didn’t. Here is the hard evidence:
I didn’t like school much, so I left at 16 and went to art college in High Wycombe. That was great, until I was expected to do the same foundation course all over again because I was too young to apply for a degree course. Not surprisingly, I got fed up with that, so I went and got a job in a commercial art studio. This was back in the Pre-Digital Age; I shared a room with a person who re-touched photos with a thing called an airbrush, and a lettering artist who actually painted headlines by hand. I drew washing machines and irons, and storyboards for TV ads; the work was well-paid, but disposable.
I messed around for a while with ideas for picture books, and my first one, You’ll Never Guess, was published in 1991. I wrote and illustrated three books in all, and also did the illustrations for other people’s stories. Here are my own three, sadly out of print now:
After a while I stopped making children’s books and started making children. My husband Pano and I have two kids, Helena and George. They were both born in New York, where Pano is from.
That’s them (right) a few years ago with a Picasso at the Museum of Modern Art.
They are now teenagers and still LOVE to have their pictures taken by their mum:
Anyway, it was through reading stories to Helena and George that I was inspired to try my hand at writing for older kids, but there were a lot of rejection letters before I got anywhere. I was very lucky because I had several friends who helped me hugely. And finally, in 2004, The Truth Cookie was published!
