Quentin Blake author page

Quentin Blake biography

Quentin Blake was born in 1932, read English at Cambridge University, and went on to study at Chelsea School of Art and Camberwell College of Art. He began illustrating at a young age, with work published in Punch when he was 16.

When he first started illustrating books, Blake also taught English in a French school in London. He later taught illustration at the Royal College of Art for more than 20 years and led the illustration department there for nearly a decade.

His first book, Patrick, was published in 1968, and later books included Mister Magnolia, All Join In and Clown. He is widely associated with illustrating Roald Dahl’s books, and his other collaborations include work with Russell Hoban, Joan Aiken and Michael Rosen.

Blake won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1980 for Mister Magnolia and won the Red House Children’s Book Award in 1981. He received the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration in 2002.

Blake was the inaugural British Children’s Laureate from 1999 to 2001. During that role, he promoted illustration, made projects and exhibitions about children’s books, and developed the idea for the House of Illustration, which later became the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration.

His Laureateship books included The Laureate’s Party, Words and Pictures and The Laureate’s Progress. In 2019, he contributed to Flights of Fancy: Stories, Pictures and Inspiration from Ten Children’s Laureates, an anthology published by Walker Books for the 20th anniversary of the Waterstones Children’s Laureate.