Lauren Child (b.1965)
Lauren Child grew up in Wiltshire and studied Art at Manchester Polytechnic and London Art School. She subsequently worked in a variety of jobs, including assistant to Damien Hirst and started her own company, Chandeliers for the People, producing exotic lampshades.
Lauren Child is one of the most talented and creative author/illustrators working today. In 1999 she had her first two picture books published, I Want a Pet! and Clarice Bean, That's Me, the latter being shortlisted for the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. In 2000 she won the Kate Greenaway Medal for I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato and the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in 2002 for That Pesky Rat. In the same year her artwork was selected to promote World Book Day, and she wrote her first children's novel, Utterly Me, Clarice Bean. The second book in this series, Clarice Bean Spells Trouble was shortlisted in 2005 for the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year. The third Clarice Bean novel – Clarice Bean, Don’t Look Now was published in 2006 and has sold over half a million copies. In October 2005 the BBC launched a 78-part animated series of Charlie and Lola. The series has won four BAFTAS and is aired in more than 34 countries.
In 2008 Lauren launched UNESCO’s My Life is a Story Campaign for UNESCO’s Programme for the Education of Children in Need. In December 2008 she was named as a UNESCO Artist for Peace. Lauren Child's humorous illustrations are highly creative and produced through different media including collage and photography as well as traditional watercolour. In 2005 she published The Princess and the Pea, for which she produced a series of three-dimensional miniature theater sets and figures which were photographed by Polly Borland.
2010 saw 10 years of her famous characters Charlie and Lola, and to launch the celebrations Illustrationcupboard Gallery with Lauren Child presents a unique exhibition of original artwork and artist’s editions; the third such collaboration together. Especially for this event they have produced the anniversary silk screen edition of Charlie and Lola based upon the long-awaited new picture book, the fourth in the Charlie and Lola series, Slightly Invisible, published by Orchard in autumn 2010. Lauren Child is shown signing books at Illustrationcupboard Gallery in 2009.
