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Graham was born in Ipswich, Suffolk.
Later on he had a passion for football, both playing and supporting his local team - Ipswich Town FC. "Come on you blues!" At Junior High School he has to thank his form teacher, Mr Furbank for making him realize he had a talent for drawing. At this point in time he loved comic books (he still does) - The Beano, Tin Tin and Rupert Bear were some of his favourites.
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At High School it was sport and art, with all the other bits in between and here he was hugely
influenced by his art teacher, Mr Temple. So much so, that he by-passed 'GSE level' and achieved
an 'A level' in Art at 16 years old, two years ahead of the norm.
From there he did two years Foundation Art and Vocational Graphics at Ipswich School of Art. His biggest memory there was Mrs Vincent the life drawing model - she was very big! 1973 was a big year for Graham - He left home and moved to London to do a three year Degree Course in Graphic Design at Hornsey School of Art. Here, another great influence in his life was the visiting lecturer Roger Law - a well known illustrator/ model-maker and later co-creator of the TV show "Spitting Image." He encouraged Graham to specialize in illustration in his final year in 1976 and from there he's never looked back.
He became a 'Freelance Illustrator' and was taken on that year by his agent John Hodgson who represented him for 28 years. Sadly he is no longer with us - thanks John, wherever you are! At the beginning he worked in a studio "visualizing in magic marker" (a felt-tip pen) but at the same time he was taking on freelance commissions.
He did editorial work for magazines such as the Radio Times, Woman, New Society, New Scientist, Good Housekeeping, London Illustrated News, Time Out and regular contributions to The Times.
He did advertising and design work for Guinness, Woolworth, London Transport, Midland Bank, Honda, Halfords and many, many more. BUT, what he really wanted to do, was children's books!
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In 1980 he married Lorna and his move over to children's books very much coincided with having children. He illustrated book covers - for example the classic He has illustrated a picture dictionary and a picture encyclopaedia both compiled by Anne Civardi. |
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He has illustrated complete books for other people, for example: As an illustrator he has reached various levels of achievement - a magazine cover for the London Illustrated News, a poster series for London Transport, a regular drawing for The Times and even a label design for Robertson's jam - but none of these compare to creating and writing his very own book. And with the help of his wife, Lorna, he co-created and illustrated the book character called Anthony Ant! He went to see Judith Elliot of Orion Books and from a proposal and sketch on the back of an envelope she immediately took the project on! Thanks Judith! The first book "Amazing Anthony Ant" won "Best Picture Book of the Year" voted by the Federation of Children's Books and ten books later it was made into an international TV animation series by Hit Entertainment UK and YTV Canada.
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Graham's other books are: And his illustrated books are:
His latest project recently illustrated is a two book series of a character called "Mark the Mountain Guide" conceived and written by Sam Williams and Mark Seaton and published by Boxer Books.
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| "Mark the Mountain Guide" was published in Sept 2008 and "Mark the
Mountain Guide. The Compass Adventure" was published in April 2009. So watch this space! |