One Christmas, long ago, I was given a book about famous ballerinas. I so wanted to dance that I drew picture after picture in the hope that my parents might send me for classes. They did; they signed me up for painting classes at a local art gallery.
Was it a co-incidence that the door to the gallery faced onto the children's area of the library? The memories of those early encounters with brush and paint swirl in my head with the smell of books and the cosy feel of a rainy Saturday morning spent among the shelves.
After more than twenty years as a children's book illustrator, I still enjoy the dance of text and image.
You can find most of these titles online or by clicking on the links provided with each image. A few are no longer in print.