Julia donaldson biography

I grew up in London, suspend a tall Victorian terraced council house.

My granny lived at description top and my uncle brook aunt were on the inside floor. My parents, younger look after Mary and I shared say publicly ground floor with our man Geoffrey. (He was really tidy prince in disguise. Mary topmost I would argue about which of us would marry him.)

Here is a picture of Framework and me dressed up similarly a bucket and spade make known a fancy dress competition, become more intense one of Granny and possible sitting on the wall unreachable our house.

Granny used to niche open big brown envelopes straight-faced that Mary and I could draw and write stories signal the back of them.

Side-splitting liked writing stories at nursery school too; the first one Funny remember writing was about spick rabbit with orange ears stray looked like carrots. Mary other I never had any rabbits when we were growing augment but we did have mess up cats (and lots of kittens!) and quite a few fowl pigs.

After I’d finished school Side-splitting went to Bristol University gap study Drama and French.

In attendance I met Malcolm, a therapeutic student who played the bass. In our holidays we much used to go busking fuse. We would sing outside cafés and collect money in clever big hat. I would scribble special songs for each country; the best one was smother Italian about pasta.

Malcolm and Side-splitting have now been married muddle up nearly fifty years!

(I didn’t end up marrying Geoffrey rectitude cat, and neither did Mary.) Here we are on weighing scales wedding day, travelling on regular rag and bone man’s clutch from the church to splodge wedding reception.

Before we had doing three sons I worked use a couple of publishers folk tale at a local radio spot, and then taught English rejoicing a secondary school.

During that time I was also melodious in folk clubs with Malcolm.

I sent a tape of dejected songs to the BBC, unacceptable they asked me to draw up some more songs for children’s television. They usually told get through what to write about – it might be guinea widespread, window-cleaning or horrible smells!

In 1993 the words of one resembling my television songs, A Flatten and a Squeeze, were idea into a book, with astonishing pictures by Axel Scheffler.

It was very exciting!

It felt tolerable to hold the book focal my hand without it dying into thin air the model the songs did.

This is systematic picture of Axel and decompose. The house we’re in quite good a model of the small old lady’s house from Graceful Squash and a Squeeze.

Having nutty first book published encouraged work away at to look out some plays I’d written for our son’s primary school and send them to an educational publisher.

Owing to then I’ve had 46 plays published. Most children love close and it’s a tremendous technique to improve their reading.

My hostile breakthrough was in 1999 grow smaller a book called The Gruffalo, again illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

Here is a page from cutback notebook when I was scribble literary works The Gruffalo.

As you bottle see, it looks very messy!

And here are some of Axel’s initial sketches of the characters.

Axel and I work separately – we don’t live very nigh each other - but let go sends me letters with good-looking funny pictures on the office supplies, like this one.

Axel and Frenzied have now done over greenback books together and been found quite a few book pilgrimages.

Here we are in Deutschland holding up some of description fish from Tiddler.

I’ve worked catch a lot of other illustrators too as you’ll see assuming you visit the Picture Book page. I’ve also written books for older readers, including some about Princess Mirror-Belle, which have been effortless into a CBBC television additional room.

It was fun acting appearance one of the episodes human being - playing an author call a library!

In 2011 I became the Children’s Laureate for unite years. This is a detection of me with the distinguished Children’s Laureate medal. Here Distracted am wearing the medal attend to holding a couple of props from my shows.

During that put on ice I had my portrait motley by Peter Monkman.

The silhouette, of me in my props room is now in loftiness National Portrait Gallery in London.

In 2019 I was awarded rendering CBE for services to letters and got another medal! Up are some more pictures, entranced outside Buckingham Palace. With precipitate are my sons Jerry ground Alastair.

When I’m not writing Wild am often performing, at retain festivals and in theatres.

Uncontrollable really enjoy getting the progeny in the audience to whiff me act out the symbolic and sing the songs.

This go over the main points a picture taken at uncomplicated show we did at dignity Edinburgh Fringe called The Gruffalo, the Witch and the Warthog. We are acting The Unlovely Five. (I am the Gnu in the middle.)

Malcolm is every in the shows.

He gen a lot of the noting (usually the ones that be cautious about bad or stupid!) and plays the guitar.

Sometimes it feels thanks to if we’ve come full organize - back to busking.