Lauren Child is the most exciting children's illustrator to emerge in recent years.
She recently won the Kate Greenaway Medal for her book I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato, another of her books Beware of the Storybook Wolves was also shortlisted for the award. In her short career as a children's illustrator Lauren has aalso been the winner of the Smarties Award 2000 Bronze Medal and was Highly Commended for the 1999 Kate Greenaway Medal. She is the author of the Clarice Bean series of books and has also illustrated the Definitely Daisy series by Jenny Oldfield.

Lauren attended two art schools where she says she didn't learn much and has also worked for the artist Damien Hirst, famous for his animals suspended in formaldehyde, for three years mixing colours and working on his spot paintings. Prior to having her first book published Lauren also had a business with a friend called Chandeliers for the People, making exotic lampshades

Lauren Child is so good, it's exhilarating. The Independent

Her humorous illustrations contain many different mediums including magazine cuttings, collage, material and photography as well as traditional watercolours. The narrative in her books take a witty look at everyday situations, I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato is a story about Lola, a fussy eater, and her brother Charlie.

Lauren has two books coming out in September, the first, My Dream Bed which is published by Hodder is a novelty book featuring pop-ups and flaps, is aimed at pre-school children. The second is the next in the Clarice Bean Series, What Planet Are You From, Clarice Bean? which is published by Orchard.

Lauren lives and works in London for the design agency Big Fish.

Last updated September 2002