Peter Collington

Peter Collington was born in 1948 and grew up in Mudeford, Nr Christchurch, Dorset. He began drawing and making things from an early age. During his teens he became fascinated with photography and subsequently studied the subject for three years at Bournemouth College of Art. Whilst living in London, Peter rediscovered drawing and painting and realised that it gave him more scope for expressing his personal vision than did photography. In 1972 Peter moved to New York where met he his wife Bonnie. They returned to Dorset where their daughter, Sasha, was born in 1981. Sasha became the model and inspiration for Peter’s first children’s book LITTLE PICKLE which was shortlisted for the Mother Goose Award.

Peter is the prize-winning artist and creator of a number of wordless picture books, including THE ANGEL AND THE SOLDIER BOY and ON CHRISTMAS EVE (shortlisted for the Smarties Prize) which were adapted for animation by Grasshopper Productions. THE COMING OF THE SURFMAN won the 1994 Bologna Book Fair Honour Book Award and was included in Young Book Trust’s “Children’s Books of the Year”. THE TOOTH FAIRY was shortlisted for the Smarties Prize and A SMALL MIRACLE was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Award and also adapted for animation by Grasshopper Productions. It was shown on ITV on Christmas Day 2002.

Tibs the cat gets very bored waiting around for humans to let him in the house, do the shopping and feed him, and when he decides that the best plan of action is to learn to do things for himself everyone thinks he is a very clever cat indeed. But when his family start giving him more and more responsibility by letting him do the shopping and the housework and getting him his own front door key so that he can come and go as he pleases, he soon realises that a cat's life isn't such a bad one after all.

Reality is turned upsidedown in a wonderfully unexpected story that is also a witty and perceptive comment on the way we live.