With the first Tony Spears Book being published today, I thought I’d write a blog post giving a bit more background to the story… I’ve been working on this new series for about 3 years now but I guess it’s actually the culmination of my life long interest in space exploration, and science fiction, and the games I used to […]

Each spring, the children’s publishing world converges on the historic Italian city of Bologna for a huge trade fair. It’s been running for over 50 years now and is unique because it is the only book fair exclusively for children’s books. I’ll be visiting the show again this year soaking up the atmosphere and meeting my […]

Last weekend I was invited to paint a mural at the Discover centre as part of The Big Draw, the world’s biggest drawing festival. This year’s theme was ‘every drawing tells story’ so I drew an enormous ‘Batholomew Bear’, surrounded by lots of bees and flowers, to help highlight the current plight of bees. We didn’t have long, only 2 and […]

Over the last year my agent has been regularly profiling each of their artists on their blog. My interview has just gone up here… And you can look at some of the other entries here. I’ve found it fascinating to read about my peers backgrounds and studio practices, so a big thanks to all at Arena and Emma Swabey for organising […]

Deadly: The Truth About The Most Dangerous Creatures on Earth has been shortlisted for the AOI Illustration Awards 2013. The AOI Illustration Awards are the most prestigious illustration awards in the UK, open to illustrators worldwide working across all sectors and any medium. The entries were assessed by a panel of respected judges including illustrators, […]

Yesterday afternoon I read my forthcoming pop-up book The Story of Stars to the Warthogs class of Cumberland Infants School. This is the first time the book has ever been aired in public, and I’m glad to say it received an enthusiastic response, provoking lots of questions and debate! I’m afraid everyone else will have […]

Yesterday I spent an enjoyable and enlightening afternoon with my agent Alison Eldred at the London Book Fair. After some pre-arranged meetings we strolled around the rest of the stands, a great way to gain an overview of what’s going on in the publishing world. I was suprised at how busy and bustling it was. […]

  This month’s image for Arena’s 2012 Desktop Calendar is by Neal Layton from Deadly!: The Truth About the Most Dangerous Creatures on Earth, published by Walker in November 2012.