Lauren Child

Lauren Child went to Art School in Manchester and London and has had a variety of jobs from designing exotic, elegant lamp shades to working as an artist's assistant to Damien Hirst.

Lauren burst on to the children's books scene in 1999 with two picture books, I Want A Pet and Clarice Bean - That's Me. Her fresh and funny books were an instant hit and in 2001 she was awarded the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for I Will Not Ever Never Eat A Tomato, the first book to feature the now hugely popular Charlie & Lola.

In 2002 That Pesky Rat won the Gold Smarties Award in the 6-8 year category. Lauren also published her first novel in the same year, Utterly Me, Clarice Bean, which was a runaway success and has been sold in many foreign editions. A second novel, Clarice Bean Spells Trouble was published in 2004, and the third, Clarice Bean, Don't Look Now was published in Autumn 2006.

Quentin Blake selected Lauren for inclusion in the Magic Pencil Exhibition (British Library), a gathering of the very best of current British children's illustrators.

2005 saw the launch of the first 26-part animated series Charlie And Lola on CBBC, produced by Tiger Aspect. There have now been three series, and rights to the show have been sold in over 30 countries.

Lauren enjoys looking round people's houses, whether public or private, and since childhood has been passionate about dolls' houses. This passion inspired Lauren's stunning retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Princess And The Pea on which she worked with photographer Polly Borland. She illustrated a new edition of Pippi Longstocking for OUP and in 2008 worked on a clever re-telling of Goldilocks And The Three Bears in a collaboration with Polly Boland and Emily Jenkins.

Who Wants To Be A Poodle? I Don't was published by Puffin in 2009. And her latest Charlie & Lola book, Slightly Invisble, was published by Orchard in October 2010.

Ruby Redfort - Look Into My Eyes is her latest novel (publlished by HarperCollins in 2011) about the teen genius code-cracker and gadget-laden special agent, who fans will know as Clarice Bean's heroine.