Chris Riddell — SPARQNOW

At-a-Glance

Appointed UK Children's Laureate in 2015.
Three-time winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal for best-illustrated children's book.
Won three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes for his written or illustrated works.
Serves as a political cartoonist for The Observer since 1995.
Co-wrote and illustrated The Edge Chronicles children's book series.
Worked as an illustrator at The Economist in the 1980s.
Studied illustration at Brighton Polytechnic.

Biography

Chris Riddell was born in 1962 in Cape Town, South Africa, and moved to England at one year old. He displayed artistic talent from an early age, encouraged by his mother, and admired the work of Sir John Tenniel and W. Heath Robinson. He studied illustration at Brighton Polytechnic, where Raymond Briggs was one of his teachers.

Riddell began his career as an illustrator at The Economist in the 1980s and joined The Observer as a political cartoonist in 1995.