Appearing:
Gala Day
Publisher
Random House Children's Books
Debi Gliori is the author illustrator of more than forty picture books for children. She is best known for her Mr Bear series (Orchard), which has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide in territories from Japan to America, and the latest title, Mr Bear’s Holiday, won the Scottish Arts Council Children’s Book Award in 2000.
She trained at Edinburgh College of Art, at the end of which she received a travelling scholarship and went to Milan to soak up Italian design. Since then Debi has freelanced as an illustrator, initially in advertising, and for the last 12 years working exclusively in publishing.
For the most part Debi works in watercolour, preferring that medium above all others for its luminous colours and ability to convey light by means of painting many transparent washes of colour, one on top of the other, building up a kind of ‘glow’. She says “I’ve never been able to work from photographs, and much prefer to find my images in my imagination and memory. I’m hugely inspired by watching and listening to my tribe of children, and most of what I do is based on and around their lives and dreams and hopes?
Debi has a purpose-built studio in her back garden, having tried, unsuccessfully, to combine working on the kitchen table with raising a family! She needs the silence and lack of distractions in this private place in order to concentrate on what she is doing.
In the tiny amounts of spare time that she can claw back from a rather crammed life, she loves cooking and gardening, but she’s always tended to look a tad embarrassed if asked what her hobbies are, “since I don’t appear to have any...?
Recommended Reads
 |
Witch Baby and Me Corgi Children's 978-0552556767 Lily is 9. Her sister Daisy is 1. And she's no ordinary baby. Somehow, when she was born, something went rather wrong...and now Daisy is a Witch Baby. Nobody knows this but Lily - she's the only one who can see when Daisy makes the fridge float in the air, or turns people into slugs, or summons up her very stinky dog Waywoof...The sisters have just moved to a new neighbourhood, and their mum wants them to make friends. She decides to throw a party and send Lily and Daisy out to deliver the invitations. They meet some odd characters along the way...Will the party be a big success or will Daisy's magic mean things are even more chaotic than normal? |
 |
Deep Trouble Corgi Children's 978-0552550468 When the Strega-Borgias return from holiday to find that their faithful family retainer, Latch, has collapsed from unknown causes, it is only the start of their problems. Signora Strega-Borgia is feeling very peaky in the mornings, Titus is trying to save the world and Pandora has an embarrassing crush on the new butler (to say nothing of the fact that a demon is trying to invade StregaSchloss). Only Ffup the dragon is truly happy, due to her forthcoming marriage to the Loch Ness Monster. A fantastically epic plot, culminating in Flora McLachlan making the ultimate sacrifice, which will have committed fans and newcomers turning the pages late into the night. |
 |
Deep Water Corgi Children's 978-0552550475 The Strega-Borgia children are still reeling from the shock of their nanny's disappearance at the end of Deep Trouble. Without Flora to tend to them, the kids are growing up fast. Indeed, Titus is in the throes of a deeply embarrassing and magically accelerated puberty, while all around the usual chaos reigns. Baby Damp is learning to fly under the tutelage of a bat called Vesper, Ffup the dragon is struggling with the Atkins diet and Tarantella the tarantula is trying to teach her daughters the rudiments of mascara. So far, so StregaSchloss, but add in an arrest for murder, a demon intent on revenge and a suicidal deep-frozen ancestor and you have a recipe that could only be cooked up in a Gliori-cauldron. |