Discover authors and illustrators

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Here are our four authors/illustrators of the month

Roald Dahl

Sitting in a hut at the bottom of his garden, surrounded by odd bits and pieces such as a suitcase (used as a footrest), his own hipbone (which he'd had replaced) and a heavy ball of metal foil (made from years' worth of chocolate wrappers), Roald Dahl wrote some of the world's best-loved stories including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, The Witches, The BFG, Fantastic Mr Fox, James and the Giant Peach and lots more.

Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline Wilson was born in Bath in 1945, and spent her childhood in Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, where she still lives today. She started her writing career as a teenage journalist with D.C. Thompson, writing for the teenage magazine Jackie which was named after her. Today her popular books for children have sold millions of copies and have been translated into more than thirty languages. Jacqueline's books include The Story of Tracy Beaker, which has become a hugely successful BBC TV series; Girls in Love, which together with its two sequels was filmed for ITV television; and Double Act, which she adapted for Channel 4 and which won the Royal TV Society's Best Children's Fiction Award. As the fourth Children's Laureate (2005-2007) she promoted the importance of sharing books, and reading aloud together.

Ed Vere

Ed studied fine art at Camberwell College of Art and has been writing and illustrating children's books since 1999. He is published in both England and the US. Ed is also a painter, working from his studio in East London and is represented by galleries in London and Los Angeles. After a year and a half living in Barcelona, Ed now lives and works in London.

Alex Wheatle

Born in 1963 to Jamaican parents, Wheatle gre up in Brixton, South London. At 16 he was a founder member of the Crucial Rocker sound system; his DJ name was Yardman Irie. He wrote lyrics about everyday Brixton life. By 1980 Wheatle was living in a social services hostel in Brixton, South London, and he participated in the 1981 Brixton riots and aftermath. While serving his resulting sentence he read authors such as Chester Himes, Richard Wright, C. L. R. James and John Steinbeck. He claims that a Rastafarian was his cellmate, and he was the one who encouraged Wheatle to start reading books and care about his education.

Writer in Residence

Our current Writer in Residence is Rashmi Sirdeshpande.

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Read features by these authors

Roald Dahl: what the world needs now is ‘zozimus’

07 July 2016

The English language is vast, but there's always room for more – so take a bow, Roald Dahl, who made up these words you'll soon be raring to use.

The Book That Made Me: Jacqueline Wilson

16 January 2019

The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett spurred on Jacqueline Wilson to tell certain stories. The author and former Children's Laureate tells us why the book means so much to her...

Meet Max the Brave: the kitten on a mission to be read by over 600,000 children this year

10 January 2018

Do you have a child in England aged 3-4? If you do, look out for the brilliant free book they'll be bringing home this year - Max the Brave. Find out more and watch our exclusive reading by author Ed Vere.

Alex Wheatle: What happens when diverse readers see themselves reflected in fiction

23 October 2018

Author Alex Wheatle explains why books need to show children and teenagers a world they recognise – and start telling some different stories.

Look at illustrations

A peacock in Lucy Cousins' A Busy Day For Birds

From Counting Birds by Alice Melvin

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A peacock in Lucy Cousins' A Busy Day For Birds

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Chris Riddell's 100 Hugs: Girl and Deer

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Destination: Space

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Other authors and illustrators to discover

Read our features

Read our features

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Waterstones Children's Laureate

Find out about Joseph Coelho

Find out everything that's going on with the 12th Waterstones Children's Laureate, Joseph Coelho, as he takes on the job from 2022-24.