Tim has been working as an illustrator for over forty years. He graduated from Kingston Polytechnic in 1983 and soon after joined the art department at i-D magazine. With a strong sense of design and a love of mark-making, texture and colour his bold illustrative work led to regular magazine commissions. His career in children’s publishing started in 2006, with the publication of Our Big Blue Sofa, which won the Cambridgeshire Book Award. In 2008 he won the Booktrust Best Emerging Illustrator Award, for his book Here Comes Frankie. This was followed in 2009 by WOW! Said the Owl which has become an international pre-school favourite.
He has since combined his love of art and music by illustrating classic songs. These include What a Wonderful World, Singing in the Rain, Moon River and Winter Wonderland all of which have been sung by Gregory Porter for CBeebies, Book at Bedtime. Amazing Frogs illustrated by Tim and written by Martin Jenkins won the School Library Association Information Book Award in 2016 and more recently, Tim’s picture book Hope is the Thing with Feathers based on the poem by Emily Dickinson won him the Best Illustrator Moonbeam Award, 2024 (US).
When not at his desk you’ll find him in the garden, in the kitchen or on the dancefloor!
