Quentin Blake

Quentin Blake
Born (1932-12-16) 16 December 1932 (age 79)
Sidcup, Kent, England, UK
Nationality British
Field Illustration
Training Chelsea School of Art

Quentin Saxby Blake, CBE, FCSD, RDI, (born 16 December 1932) is an English cartoonist, illustrator and children's author, well known for his collaborations with writer Roald Dahl.

Education

Blake was born in 1932 in Sidcup, Kent and was evacuated to the West Country during the war. He went to Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, where his English teacher, J H Walsh, influenced his ambition to become involved in literature. His first published drawing was for the satirical magazine Punch, at the age of 16. He read English Literature at Downing College, Cambridge (1953-6), received his postgraduate teaching diploma from the University of London, and later studied at the Chelsea School of Art. He gained another teaching diploma at the Institute of Education before working at the Royal College of Art. His full name is Quentin Saxby Blake.He is not married and has no children.

Career

Blake gained a reputation as a reliable and humorous illustrator of more than 300 children's books. As well as illustrating the books of others, including Joan Aiken, Roald Dahl, Elizabeth Bowen and Dr. Seuss,[1] Blake has written numerous books of his own. As of 2006, he has participated in the writing and/or illustrating of 323 books (of which he wrote 35 himself, and 18 were by Dahl). He taught at the Royal College of Art for over twenty years, and was head of the Illustration department from 1978 to 1986. He recently illustrated David Walliams's debut book, The Boy in the Dress and his more recent book Mr Stink.

Other activities

In the 1970s Blake was an occasional presenter of the BBC children's story-telling programme Jackanory, in which he would illustrate the stories on a canvas as he was telling them.

In 1993 he designed the five British Christmas issue postage stamps featuring episodes from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Blake is patron of the Blake Society, Downing College's arts and humanities society. He is also a patron of "The Big Draw"[2] which aims to get people drawing throughout the UK, and of The Nightingale Project,[3] a charity that puts art into hospitals. Since 2006 he has produced work for several hospitals and health centres in the London area and one in Paris.[4]

In 2007 he 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.[5]

Blake is also the designer of 'Ben', the 'logo' of the shop chain, Ben's Cookies.

Blake is a supporter 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."[6]

Bibliography (partial)

This is a list only of books both written and illustrated by Blake.Quentin Blake : Books : Bibliography

Other

Further reading

Notes

  1. ^ Dr. Seuss (1974). Great day for up. Beginner Books. OCLC 902800. 
  2. ^ http://www.thebigdraw.org.uk/
  3. ^ http://www.nightingaleproject.org/
  4. ^ http://www.quentinblake.com/
  5. ^ The Independent Cover-up! Quentin Blake drafted in to hide 'unsightly' buildings, 21 October 2007
  6. ^ 2010 Annual Report, Survival International

External links

Interviews and articles
Cultural offices
Preceded by
New post 		Children's Laureate of the United Kingdom
1999–2001		 Succeeded by
Anne Fine
Authors: Eleanor Farjeon (1956) • Astrid Lindgren (1958) • Erich Kästner (1960) • Meindert DeJong (1962) • René Guillot (1964) • Tove Jansson (1966) • James Krüss and José Maria Sanchez-Silva (1968) • Gianni Rodari (1970) • Scott O'Dell (1972) • Maria Gripe (1974) • Cecil Bødker (1976) • Paula Fox (1978) • Bohumil Říha (1980) • Lygia Bojunga Nunes (1982) • Christine Nöstlinger (1984) • Patricia Wrightson (1986) • Annie M. G. Schmidt (1988) • Tormod Haugen (1990) • Virginia Hamilton (1992) • Michio Mado (1994) • Uri Orlev (1996) • Katherine Paterson (1998) • Ana Maria Machado (2000) • Aidan Chambers (2002) • Martin Waddell (2004) • Margaret Mahy (2006) • Jürg Schubiger (2008) • David Almond (2010)
Illustrators: Alois Carigiet (1966) • Jiří Trnka (1968) • Maurice Sendak (1970) • Ib Spang Olsen (1972) • Farshid Mesghali (1974) • Tatyana Mavrina (1976) • Svend Otto S. (1978) • Suekichi Akaba (1980) • Zbigniew Rychlicki (1982) • Mitsumasa Anno (1984) • Robert Ingpen (1986) • Dusan Kállay (1988) • Lisbeth Zwerger (1990) • Kveta Pacovská (1992) • Jörg Müller (1994) • Klaus Ensikat (1996) • Tomi Ungerer (1998) • Anthony Browne (2000) • Quentin Blake (2002) • Max Velthuijs (2004) • Wolf Erlbruch (2006) • Roberto Innocenti (2008) • Jutta Bauer (2010)
Works by Roald Dahl
Children's novels
Children's poetry
Adult novels
Adult short story
collections
Non-fiction
Film adaptations
Plays
Film scripts
Television series
See also