It was in 1978, cold and broke searching for change down the sides of the sofa to feed the gas meter that I took my artistic talents seriously.  I was living with Maria in a small studio apartment in Manchester England, looking for ideas that would pay the rent. That was when we had this brilliant idea of sketching public houses and selling the framed...

In a local card shop I saw a series of cards by Sandra Boynton, little hippos and ducks and stuff. “I could do that” I said and proceeded to create a series of humorous  greetings cards with little witty sayings like ‘It’s your Birthday … SCREW YOU!’ That was the easy bit! Next came the selling and walking from publisher to publisher trying to...

I was now married to Maria and with my two kids from my earlier marriage, I settled down with my pipe and slippers again  only to find I was going to be a dad once more! At this point I decided we needed a better plan! So we created a freelance art company. With a small drawing board and a tin of cow gum we took on...

Writing funny shit week after week drove me completely nuts! So we decided to get into books. So armed with a portfolio of cards I landed my first board book work with a small company who went broke shortly after but sold the books on to a multi national publisher. Not a good start! But not my best work! I learned much later that under the new...

Illustrating books was great after spending so much time on greeting cards, and I soon landed four titles with Wayland Books (Hodder) a series we called ‘The emotions’!   I feel Sad, I Feel Angry … you  get the idea. That series I still do today in one form or another and has kept me in annual royalties for many years. I think myself very fortunate...