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Posy Simmonds was born in Berkshire in 1945. She went to boarding school and the Sorbonne before returning to England to study at art school. She studied at Central School of Art and Design, London. She briefly studied fine art, swapping to graphic design, 'a mainly typographic course but useful for learning hand lettering'. She went on to draw for newspapers, where the time pressures meant 'drawing quickly with no time for second thoughts'. Before her weekly strip-cartoon in the Guardian she contributed filler drawings for a range of feature articles.

Posy Simmonds first made her name with a popular cartoon series in the Guardian. Readers saw themselves caricatured in her politically correct creations but she wanted to try something new and in 1987 she started to write and illustrate children's fiction. Her works are notable for the discipline and fine tuning of the page design. They combine a razor sharp wit with merciless social observation. She was awarded an MBE (2002) for services to the newspaper industry.

On her work

When she was a child Posy was frustrated by children's books that ended with the story having all been a dream. Her own work combines imagination and personal observation: 'I take a good look at anything that catches my eye – someone's shoes or eyebrows say. Then I go home and get it down on paper'.

When she was growing up she was surrounded by copies of Punch, Giles annuals and drawings by Ronald Searle and Pont. 'So my childhood drawings always had captions and conversations and have done ever since really. I love the combination of words and pictures, the way they can complement or illuminate or contradict each other.'

Telling details appear in her pictures – shoes, hairstyles, furniture and fittings – visible evidence for her sly character portraits. 'I don't go out drawing in the street, I just go round looking at people. I'm incredibly nosy.'

'I do a lot of drawing, masses of doodling. I usually draw with my right hand, though I am ambidextrous. My style is looser with my left hand. It's the hand that does practical things like cutting out and sharpening pencils.'

'Drawing for the newspapers was usually in black and white. I used a felt-tip or a broad nib Rotring. Reproduction in those days was terrible and I had to use a hefty line. Today it's much better and I can use finer tones. Doing a children's book was my first chance to use colour. I found this difficult – there are too many colours, too much choice. But I didn't find it hard to move from writing for adults to writing for children.'

Inspiration

Punch magazine.
Giles the cartoonist.
Pont.
Ronald Searle.

Films

Famous Fred.

See the entry for Posy Simmonds on ContemporaryWriters.com

See details of books in print from enCompassCulture.com

External links

BBC news story on the occasion of Posy Simmonds receiving an MBE in the Queen's 2001 Birthday Honours - the story includes a profile