Quentin Blake

From 1999 to 2001, he was the inaugural British Children's Laureate. Blake is a patron of the Association of Illustrators.

Blake was born on 16 December 1932 in Sidcup, Kent, son of William and Evelyn Blake. His father was a civil servant, and his mother a housewife. Blake was evacuated to the West Country during the Second World War. He attended Holy Trinity Lamorbey Church of England Primary School and Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, where his English teacher, J. H. Walsh, influenced his life's work. Blake's artistic development during his school years was helped by contact with the painter and cartoonist Alfred Jackson, the husband of Blake's Latin teacher, who encouraged his first submissions to Punch, resulting in his first publication at the age of 16. In the sixth form, the school's art teacher, the painter Stanley Simmonds, recognized Blake's talents and provided support and exposure to the work of other artists. Blake read English Literature at Downing College, Cambridge, under F. R. Leavis, from 1953 to 1956, received his postgraduate teaching diploma from the University of London Institute of Education, and later studied part-time at the Chelsea School of Art and later Camberwell College of Art. He has since denied that studying at the University of Cambridge contributed to his artistic or creative talent.

During the 1960s, Blake taught English at the Lycée Français de Londres which cemented his long association with France and culminated in the award of the Legion of Honour. He taught at the Royal College of Art for over 20 years, where he was head of the Illustration department from 1978 to 1986. The first book Blake illustrated was The Wonderful Button by Evan Hunter, published by Abelard-Schuman in 1961. In his subsequent career, Blake gained a reputation as a loyal, reliable and humorous illustrator of more than 300 children's books, including some written by Joan Aiken, Elizabeth Bowen, Sylvia Plath, Roald Dahl, Nils-Olof Franzén, William Steig, and Dr. Seuss. He illustrated the first Seuss book that Seuss did not illustrate himself, Great Day for Up! (1974). By 2006, Blake had illustrated 323 books, of which he had written 35 and Dahl had written 18. To date, Blake has illustrated two of David Walliams' books and has illustrated Folio Society Limited Editions such as Don Quixote, Candide and 50 Fables of La Fontaine. In the 1970s, Blake was an occasional presenter of the BBC children's storytelling programme Jackanory, when he would illustrate the stories on a canvas as he was telling them. In the 1980s, Blake was the artist behind the comic strip Waldo and Wanda, written by John Yeoman. In 1993, Blake designed the five British Christmas issue postage stamps featuring episodes from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Blake is a member of the Chelsea Arts Club. He is patron of the Blake Society, Downing College's arts and humanities society. Blake is also a patron of "The Big Draw", which aims to get people drawing throughout the United Kingdom, and of The Nightingale Project, a charity that provides art to hospitals. Since 2006, he has produced work for several hospitals and mental health centres in the London area, a children's hospital (Hopital Armand Trousseau) in Paris, and a maternity hospital in Angers, France. These projects are detailed in Blake's 2012 book Quentin Blake: Beyond the Page, which describes how, in his seventies, his work has increasingly appeared outside the pages of books, in public places such as hospitals, theatre foyers, galleries and museums. In 2007, Blake designed a huge mural on fabric, suspended over and thus disguising a ramshackle building immediately opposite an entrance to St Pancras railway station. The rendering of an "imaginary welcoming committee" greets passengers arriving on the Eurostar high-speed railway. Blake is a supporter of and ambassador for the indigenous rights NGO Survival International. In 2009, he said, "For me, Survival is important for two reasons; one is that I think it's right that we should give help and support to people who are threatened by the rapacious industrial society we have created; and the other that, more generally, it gives an important signal about how we all ought to be looking after the world. Its message is the most fundamental of any charity I'm connected with." Blake is the Founding Trustee of House of Illustration, a centre in London for exhibitions, educational events and activities related to the art of illustration. He was also the subject of the first exhibition at this venue, entitled Inside Stories", which opened in July 2014. In August 2020, it was announced that the centre will be relocating to the 18th century Engine House at New River Head in the Clerkenwell area of London and will be renamed the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. Besides children's books, Blake is also the designer of Ben, the logo of the shop chain Ben's Cookies. He designed several illustrations for the story time segments for the Scottish TV series Squeak!. In 2023, Blake was asked by Blue Peter to design a new Blue Peter badge which they have called their Book badge.

Blake has never married and has no children. He lives in South Kensington, West London.

The following books were both written and illustrated by Blake: Patrick (Jonathan Cape, 1968) Jack and Nancy (Cape, 1969) Angelo (Cape, 1970) Snuff (Cape, 1973) Lester at the Seaside (William Collins, Sons, 1975) Lester and the Unusual Pet (Collins, 1975) The Adventures of Lester (BBC, 1977) Mister Magnolia (Cape, 1980) —winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal Quentin Blake's Nursery Rhyme Book (Cape, 1983) The Story of the Dancing Frog (Cape, 1984) Mrs Armitage On Wheels (Cape, 1987) Quentin Blake's ABC (Cape, 1989) All Join In (Cape, 1990) —winner of the Kurt Maschler Award for integrated text and illustration Cockatoos (Cape, 1992) Simpkin (Cape, 1993) The Quentin Blake Book of Nonsense Verse (Viking Press, 1994) Clown (Cape, 1995) —commended runner-up for the Greenaway Medal La Vie de la Page (Gallimard, 1995) Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave (Cape, 1997) Dix Grenouilles (Ten Frogs) (Gallimard, 1997) The Green Ship (Cape, 1998) Zagazoo (Cape, 1998) Zap! The Quentin Blake Guide to Electrical Safety (Eastern Electricity, 1998) Fantastic Daisy Artichoke (Cape, 1999) The Twelve Days of Christmas (Correspondence) (Atlantic Books, 1999) The Laureate's Party (Random House, 2000) Un Bateau Dans le Ciel (Rue du Monde, 2000) Words and Pictures (Cape, 2000) Tell Me a Picture (National Gallery, 2001) Loveykins (Cape, 2002) Laureate's Progress (Cape, 2002) Mrs Armitage, Queen of the Road (Cape, 2003) A Sailing Boat In The Sky (Random House: Red Fox, 2003) Angel Pavement (Cape, 2004) You're Only Young Twice (Andersen Press, 2008) Daddy Lost his Head (Andre Bouchard, 2009) Quentin Blake: Beyond the Page (Tate Publishing Ltd, 2012) Blake has illustrated at least 17 books by Roald Dahl. He also illustrated the British edition of Agaton Sax, a Swedish-language series of comedy detective novels by Nils-Olof Franzén (originally illustrated by Åke Lewerth, 1955 to 1978). Agaton Sax and the Diamond Thieves, 1965 Agaton Sax and the Scotland Yard Mystery, 1969 Agaton Sax and the Max Brothers (a.k.a. Bank Robbers), 1970 Agaton Sax and the Criminal Doubles, 1971 Agaton Sax and the Colossus of Rhodes, 1972 Agaton Sax and the London Computer Plot, 1973 Agaton Sax and the League of Silent Exploders, 1974 Agaton Sax and the Haunted House, 1975 Agaton Sax and the Big Rig (extended), 1976 Agaton Sax and Lispington's Grandfather Clock, 1978 Other The Learning Journey —National Curriculum, key stages 1 and 2, illustrated editions for parents Three Little Monkeys 2016, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark Three Little Monkeys Ride Again 2019, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark Three Little Monkeys at Christmas 2021, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark Three Little Monkeys and the Grand Hotel 2023, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark Liliana the Strong 2025, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark