Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake
Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake
Roald Dahl was born in Wales in 1916 to Norwegian parents. After a distinguished career as a fighter pilot and diplomat during the Second World War, Roald Dahl settled down to become a full time author; first writing popular stories for adults, then, later, retelling many of the stories he made up at bedtime for his own children.
The first book Roald Dahl and illustrator Quentin Blake worked on together was 'The Enormous Crocodile'. Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake soon became firm friends, cementing one of the most eye-catching and distinctive collaborations in children's literature.
Roald Dahl died in 1990. His work had been published in over 40 languages and today is considered a modern classic.
"I could never guess what he was going to think of next." Quentin Blake
Quentin Blake
Quentin Blake was born in the suburbs of London in 1932 and has drawn ever since he can remember. He went to Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, followed by National Service. He then studied English at Downing College, Cambridge, going on to do a postgraduate teaching diploma at the University of London, followed by life-classes at Chelsea Art School.
Quentin has always made his living as an illustrator, alongside teaching for over twenty years at the Royal College of Art, where he was head of the Illustration department from 1978 to 1986. His first drawings were published in Punch while he was 16 and still at school. He continued to draw for Punch, The Spectator, and other magazines, over many years, while at the same time entering the world of children's books with A Drink of Water by John Yeoman in 1960.
Quentin is known for his collaboration with writers such as Russell Hoban, Joan Aiken, Michael Rosen, John Yeoman, and, most famously, Roald Dahl. He has also illustrated classic books, including A Christmas Carol and Candide, and created much-loved characters of his own, including Mister Magnolia and Mrs Armitage.
Since the 1990s, Quentin Blake has had an additional career as exhibition curator, curating shows in, among other places, the National Gallery, the British Library, and the Musée du Petit Palais in Paris. In the last few years, he has begun to make larger-scale work for hospitals and healthcare settings in the UK and France where his work can be seen in wards and public spaces, including the whole of a new maternity hospital in Angers.
His books have won numerous prizes and awards, including the Whitbread Award, the Kate Greenaway Medal, the Emil/Kurt Maschler Award, and the international Bologna Ragazzi Prize. He won the 2002 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration, the highest international recognition given to creators of children's books. In 2004, Quentin Blake was awarded the 'Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres' by the French Government for services to literature and, in 2007, he was made Officier in the same order. In 2014, he was admitted to the Legion d'Honneur, an honour accorded to few people who are not French nationals. In 1999, he was appointed the first ever Children's Laureate, a post designed to raise the profile of children's literature. His book, Laureate's Progress (2002), recorded many of his activities and the illustrations he produced during his two-year tenure. Quentin Blake was created CBE in 2005, is an RDI, and has numerous honorary degrees from universities throughout the UK. He received a knighthood for 'services to illustration' in the New Year's Honours for 2013, and became an Honorary Freeman of the City of London in 2015.