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Chris Riddell
Chris Riddell OBE FRSL (/rɪdˈɛl/ rid-EL) (born 13 April 1962) is a South African-born English illustrator and occasional writer of children's books and a political cartoonist for the Observer. He has won three Kate Greenaway Medals – the British librarians' annual award for the best-illustrated children's book, and two of his works were commended runners-up, a distinction dropped after 2002.
Books that he wrote or illustrated have won three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes and have been silver or bronze runners-up four times. On 9 June 2015, he was appointed the UK Children's Laureate.
Chris Riddell was born in 1962 in Cape Town, South Africa, where his father was a "liberal Anglican vicar" and was opposed to the system of apartheid. The family returned to England when Chris was one year old, where he spent the rest of his childhood with his sister and three brothers, who now live in South Africa, Brighton, and Egypt. He attended Archbishop Tenison's Grammar School in Kennington. Chris displayed artistic talent from an early age and was encouraged in this by his mother. (She gave him paper and pen to keep quiet during his father's sermons.) As a child, he admired the work of Sir John Tenniel, the first illustrator of Alice in Wonderland, and W. Heath Robinson. At Brighton Polytechnic, he studied illustration; one teacher was Raymond Briggs, an earlier winner of two Greenaway Medals.
Riddell worked as an illustrator at The Economist in the 1980s, and at the Observer starting in 1995.
In 2002, he named as influences Tenniel and E. H. Shepard, the first illustrator of The Wind in the Willows and Winnie the Pooh.
As of 2019, Riddell and his wife, Joanne Burroughes, an illustrator and print-maker, live in Brighton with three children. They also have a second home in rural Norfolk where Joanne is from. Daughter Katy Riddell is also a children's book illustrator, including of Pongwiffy by Kaye Umansky.
His brother Rick Riddell, a secondary teacher at the Alice Smith School, died in February 2012.
Some of Riddell's most celebrated work are The Edge Chronicles (1998), a children's book series co-written with Paul Stewart and illustrated by Riddell. Set in the fictional world known as "The Edge", the books have been praised for Riddell's beautifully detailed line drawings and the unique nature of their collaborative writing process.
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Chris Riddell
Chris Riddell OBE FRSL (/rɪdˈɛl/ rid-EL) (born 13 April 1962) is a South African-born English illustrator and occasional writer of children's books and a political cartoonist for the Observer. He has won three Kate Greenaway Medals – the British librarians' annual award for the best-illustrated children's book, and two of his works were commended runners-up, a distinction dropped after 2002.
Books that he wrote or illustrated have won three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes and have been silver or bronze runners-up four times. On 9 June 2015, he was appointed the UK Children's Laureate.
Chris Riddell was born in 1962 in Cape Town, South Africa, where his father was a "liberal Anglican vicar" and was opposed to the system of apartheid. The family returned to England when Chris was one year old, where he spent the rest of his childhood with his sister and three brothers, who now live in South Africa, Brighton, and Egypt. He attended Archbishop Tenison's Grammar School in Kennington. Chris displayed artistic talent from an early age and was encouraged in this by his mother. (She gave him paper and pen to keep quiet during his father's sermons.) As a child, he admired the work of Sir John Tenniel, the first illustrator of Alice in Wonderland, and W. Heath Robinson. At Brighton Polytechnic, he studied illustration; one teacher was Raymond Briggs, an earlier winner of two Greenaway Medals.
Riddell worked as an illustrator at The Economist in the 1980s, and at the Observer starting in 1995.
In 2002, he named as influences Tenniel and E. H. Shepard, the first illustrator of The Wind in the Willows and Winnie the Pooh.
As of 2019, Riddell and his wife, Joanne Burroughes, an illustrator and print-maker, live in Brighton with three children. They also have a second home in rural Norfolk where Joanne is from. Daughter Katy Riddell is also a children's book illustrator, including of Pongwiffy by Kaye Umansky.
His brother Rick Riddell, a secondary teacher at the Alice Smith School, died in February 2012.
Some of Riddell's most celebrated work are The Edge Chronicles (1998), a children's book series co-written with Paul Stewart and illustrated by Riddell. Set in the fictional world known as "The Edge", the books have been praised for Riddell's beautifully detailed line drawings and the unique nature of their collaborative writing process.
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