Category: Katie

My warmest congratulations to Piper from Scotland! YOU HAVE WON THE KATIE LOCH NESS MONSTER COMPETITION out of over 300 entries!!! This is exactly the sort of Nessie I think Katie would have painted. I love the bold shape, the cheery flippers and the fin at the end of her tail. This will be featured […]

Hurrah! It’s publication day for Katie and the Waterlily Pond. This is the tenth book in the Katie series and publication coincides neatly with the 21st anniversary of the very first book (Katie’s Picture Show). Some parts of the book were a real challange. The one I particularly remember is the scene in the Giverny […]

I recently posted a piece about my dear friend Margaret Hickman-Smith, CLICK HERE to read “Riding a Carousel with Margaret”, who wrote about me for Carousel magazine. This is now online and if you want to read it CLICK HERE. She’s an amazing woman and I am eternally grateful to her for all she has […]

What an afternoon! I confess we didn’t count the entries – there were just too many! But we think there must have been OVER 300!!! After laying them out on tables – we had to do that in three waves of pictures as even the biggest conference room was swamped – my editor Liz, and […]

Today’s the day – this afternoon I will go to London to choose the winning entries in the Loch Ness Monster art competition. I can’t wait, as I haven’t seen any of them yet. Of course I always find this sort of thing difficult – I love children’s drawings and I expect I’ll want them […]

With in excess of 200 entries, the task to find a winner will be difficult to say the least. But next week I will go to London to help Orchard Books sift through the entries and find the ten pictures that will be exhibited at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, and the one […]

After looking through the rough sketches my publisher, Orchard Books, were concerned that Nessie was not entirely consistant throughout. They also wanted her to look a little more rounded and appealing. So I have revised her a little, as you can see in these sketches. She’s much more of a character now… BY THE WAY, […]

I recently posted a piece on my OTHER blog (JAMES MAYHEW) about a piece of art being auctioned tonight to raise funds for Lister Hopsital in Stevenage. And I was reminded that the book it came from had a complicated history. Katie and the Dinosaurs was the second Katie title, and in those days I […]

Yesterday I received, from the Federation of Children’s Book groups, a copy of their magazine “Carousel”. For inside, I am interviewed by retired head teacher Margaret Hickman-Smith. She has written a lovely piece about me. Now it is time to return the favour, for our meeting a few months back reminded me of the absolute […]

Would you like to own an original illustration from “KATIE & THE DINOSAURS” ??? This is your chance – CLICK HERE for details of an exciting art auction in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.