Quentin Blake
Quentin Blake was born in 1932 and has drawn ever since he can remember. His first drawing was published in Punch when he was just 16. He went to Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School before reading English at Downing College, Cambridge. After National Service he did a postgraduate teaching diploma at the University of London, followed by 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 while he was still at school. He continued to draw for Punch, The Spectator and other magazines over many years, while at the same time entering the world of children’s books with A Drink of Water by John Yeoman in 1960.
He is known for his collaboration with writers such as Russell Hoban, Joan Aiken, Michael Rosen, John Yeoman and, most famously, Roald Dahl. He has also illustrated classic children’s books, and created much-loved characters of his own, including Mister Magnolia and Mrs Armitage.
His books have won numerous prizes and awards, including the Whitbread Award, the Kate Greenaway Medal, the Emil/Kurt Maschler Award and the international Bologna Ragazzi Prize. Most recently he won the 2002 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration, the highest international recognition given to creators of children’s books. He is now recognised, according to The Guardian, as ‘a national institution’. In 1999 he was appointed the first ever Children’s Laureate, a post designed to raise the profile of children’s literature. In 2002 Laureate’s Progress recorded many of his activities and the illustrations he produced during his two-year tenure. In 1988 he was awarded an OBE for services to children’s literature and in 2005 he was made a CBE.