Featured Author
Laurence Anholt takes us on a journey through his life and career as an award winning author and illustrator.
Why did you want to become a writer? 
Well it wasn't part of some Master Plan for my life, although my mum was an English teacher and I always loved reading. In fact what I really wanted to be was a painter like Picasso - I spent 8 years at art school and thought about nothing but painting. Then when my first daughter was born 23 years ago I began to realise that I needed to earn a living pretty fast! At that time, my wife Catherine was asked to illustrate a story by another author. I read the story and I said, "I could write better than that!" Of course Catherine said, "Go on then." And that's how it began. I wouldn't say it was easy at all and for the first five or six years I had all kinds of part time jobs - I was a carpenter and a school teacher - but I stuck at it and found I enjoyed it and I got stuff published too.
Do you have a favourite place or time of day when you write?
My favourite place on this beautiful planet is right here in South West England where my family and I have lived for the past 16 years. My kids went to local schools and grew up in the hills and beaches around Lyme Regis. Our (rather wonderful) bookshop, Chimp and Zee, Bookshop by the Sea is in Lyme Regis too. I find the area incredibly inspiring and quite often when I'm working on an idea for a picture book, I'll set off along the coast to let that fresh sea air blow the cobwebs out the old brain cells. A walk I particularly enjoy is Lyme to Charmouth past Black Ven (that's where my story about Mary Anning, 'Stone Girl, Bone Girl' takes place).
Are you currently working on something new?
Err...yes, I have got one or two projects underway. In fact I'm currently working on at least twelve books! Really, it's true. In fact at any time I am working on lots of different projects and they are all at different stages, so they sort of overlap. I like working on different kinds of books, some serious, some silly and some seriously silly, like eight new Seriously Silly Stories in progress, all illustrated by my great friend, the extremely talented Arthur Robins. They will be called: Bleeping Beauty (about a princess who gets stuck on a computer game), The Silly Willy Billy Goats, The Elves and the Storymaker, The Ugly Duck Thing, The Little Marzipan Man, The Princess and the Tree, Freddy Frog Face and Handsome and Gruesome.
As well as that lot, I'm working on a new picture book with my wife Catherine and reprints of two old books. Then I'm starting research on the latest in my Anholt's Artists series which are stories about great artists like van Gogh and Picasso and the real children who knew them. This one will be about a French painter called Cezanne, so Catherine and I will be taking an essential research trip in our campervan to the South of France where he lived!
Then there are at several other projects in progress - a picture book with illustrator, Jane Ray and another book with local artist, Jim Coplestone.
To round it off, I am working on a couple of stage adaptations of our books - one in Korea - and writing the screenplay for an animated series of my Anholt's Artists series. So as you can see, I'm a busy little bee! Luckily I enjoy it all, so I'm not complaining.
Do have you any words of advice for young writers?
Here are my Words of Wisdom, coming up free of charge...the first thing is that if you want to be a successful writer you need to enjoy the sound of words. When I was young I loved all kinds of words - lyrics from songs, funny jokes, even the writing on the back of cereal packets. But there's something else which is even more important than that. This is something you need if you are going to succeed in any profession, whether it's sport or singing or skydiving. I'm talking about CONFIDENCE and SELF-BELIEF! When I was a lad, I was full of doubts, but I learnt that its impossible to achieve anything if you have a little voice in your head saying, "That's rubbish! You're no good!" Have you got a voice like that? If so you need to tell it to shut up! Listen out for your confident voice instead...it's quieter but it's far more helpful. It's the voice that says, "Yes, I CAN do this!" Let that voice grow, trust yourself and before you know it, the words will be spilling out onto the paper.
Where were you born and brought up?
I was born in London but grew up in Amsterdam. I'm a Cockney Rebel!
What was the best thing about your childhood?
I had a wild and wicked time as a teenager but I can't talk about it here! Having left school with very few qualifications, I was lucky enough to spend eight fantastic years at Art School and I finished with an MA from the Royal Academy of Art.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I have been obsessed by Art since I was young. So my dream was to become a painter like van Gogh or Picasso. Picasso was better because he had two ears.
Do you prefer being an adult, or do you long with yearning for your happy childhood days?
I did things back to front. When I was little I was rather serious and not hugely happy. But I am now thoroughly enjoying my childhood! Yes indeed, life is a beautiful thing - I recommend it to all my friends!
Tell me about your current career?
Ok, here's a quick plug... I have written more than 100 children's books which are published around the world and are amongst the bestselling children's books in galleries worldwide. Many of my stories are illustrated by my wife, Catherine but I work with various other artists too. We have been involved with the fantastic Bookstart scheme since the very beginning (The Anholts produced the free Babies Love Books leaflet) and we have numerous stage and animation productions underway including a Korean stage adaptation of Camille and the Sunflowers. Our books have won many awards including the Nestle Smarties Gold Award on two occasions and we are amongst the 100 most borrowed authors from UK libraries in all genres. In addition, I am lucky enough to have a huge studio where I spend a lot of time painting and drawing purely for pleasure. Catherine and I are the only authors to own our own bookshop, the rather amazing Chimp and Zee Bookshop by the Sea which has been described as 'like stepping inside a storybook' and the Society of Authors called it, "Iconic". The shop is packed full of book related displays and anamatronic models. We have a gallery upstairs where we hold writing workshops for visiting schools. Our website, www.anholt.co.uk, where you can see pictures of the shop and buy signed copies of our books, attracts more than 200,000 hits a month. 
What do you do in your spare time?
Everyone in my family loves to travel. We took the kids on many fantastic adventures when they were young and they once spent Christmas day riding camels in the Sahara desert. Our oldest daughter is now an Anthropologist and has visited some extraordinary places. I loved Indonesia and Morocco and Cathy and I are currently preparing a trip across India. In the meantime, I must admit that we have a campervan and we like to take off spontaneously in Europe and the UK. I know what you're thinking...'middle-aged, middle of the road...' but really, it's more Jack Kerouac than the Caravan Club... honest!
Tell us three interesting facts about yourself (likes, dislikes, ambitions, weird things you can do….whatever!)
1) I have done many weird jobs including hotel-night-receptionist, carpenter and tropical fish salesman.
2) I have a peanut allergy (although my family tell me it is psychosomatic).
3) I was born with two heads. (One of these facts may not be true).
How long have you been writing and how many books have you published?
I started making books with my wife, Catherine in 1984 when our children were babies. Since then we’ve made more than ninety (books that is, not babies!)
Are your books in other languages?
I think it’s about 40 or 50 languages including Icelandic, Cantonese, Hebrew and Welsh.
Can you speak all those languages?
No. But I can do lots of silly voices.
You work with your wife, Catherine. But who does the writing and who does the pictures?
This is a bit complicated. It goes like this: I do the writing and Cathy has illustrated about half of our books. But? I also write for other illustrators, including my good friend, the disgustingly talented Arthur Robins and lots of other lovely artists. To make things even more confusing, I also illustrate my own books, mainly my series about famous artists called Anholt's Artists, which is very special to me. Admit it, you're totally confused? Anyway, the main thing is to go and read all of them IMMEDIATELY!
Where do you get the ideas for your Seriously Silly Stories?
Well, first of all you have to be a bit silly yourself, (you can practice that on your own), then take a large net and go hunting for a traditional fairy story. When you see a good one, grab it, tie it up, drag it home, turn it upside down by its ankles, jump up and down on it and then stick it all back together again - it sounds cruel, but stories really don't mind being treated like that. I get some of the corny jokes from my own children - sometimes they try to make me pay for them! I mix the jokes with a few daft rhymes and when I have finished, Arthur Robins does his brilliant pictures and we sell the whole lot to our publisher for A HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY... it's as easy as that.
Were you a genius at school?
A lot of people think that authors must be alien beings with brains as big as a football stadium. Well, it ain't true! Most authors are ordinary humanoids with brains like tinned prunes, (some very old authors have brains like salted peanuts). When I was at school, I was not very clever at all: my Maths was sort of 2+1=6ish and my spelling woz evun wurs. BUT I always loved reading and was keen on drawing. I also had lots of weirdly wonderful ideas. (My teachers didn't know what to do with me except beat me quite a lot.)
I bet you’ve never won any awards or prizes, have you?
Are you kidding? I’ve got a whole barn full of them. Book awards include the Smarties Gold Award for ‘Snow White and the Seven Aliens’ in 1999 and ‘Chimp and Zee’ in 2001.
Other awards include:
The Kids' Club Network Award
Right Start Toy and Book Award (Three titles)
Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award Winners (twice)
English Association Four to Eleven Awards (Two titles)
Shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award
Federation of Children's Book Awards (Three titles)
Sainsbury's Baby Book Award
Experian Big 3 Book Prize
Nottinghamshire Children's Book Award
US Smithsonian Institute (Highly Recommended)
Sheffield Children's Book Award
How about that, buddy? What was your first book called?
Our very first books were about a little pig called Truffles, (now sadly porked!). That was in 1984. Cathy and I didn’t invent any other animal characters until we started work on Chimp and Zee. This is a series of books for very young children featuring twin monkeys called ...Chimp and Zee, who are based very closely on our own twins when they were young, 'Ha, ha, ha! Hee, hee, hee! Up jumps Chimp, up jumps Zee!'
Do you live in a coconut tree like Chimp and Zee?
No. We live in funny old house in Lyme Regis just 150 metres from the sea and a few minutes walk away from our shop Chimp and Zee, Bookshop by the Sea. 
Lyme Regis is called The Pearl of Dorset and I am not kidding when I say it is the most beautiful, magical place on this fair planet.
Lyme Regis is famous for:
- Fossils
- Mary Anning
- Jane Austen
- The French Lieutenant’s Woman
- Being beautiful
- The fantastic Chimp and Zee, Bookshop by the Sea
Our house is very old and has lots of cellars, attics and big rooms where we make our books. We also have big studios where we run regular workshops for people who want to write, illustrate and paint. The house was built as a coaching inn in 1853 and it actually spans the river which runs right underneath our kitchen. Half of the house is now studio and office space and we have a wonderful team who work in the offices and the shop. The rest of the house is where we live. There are 11 bedrooms so we have lots of space for family and friends to stay and we have BIG parties at Christmas!
It sounds great. Can I come and stay with you for a holiday?
No, go away.
Do you live with anyone interesting?
I live with my lovely wife, Catherine (she is very interesting) and our three fantastic children when they are home? Claire is 23 and she is an anthropologist. Twins, Tom and Maddy are 19 and they are extremely interesting too.
Tom is a really good artist and he is at Chelsea College of Art. Maddy is studying Drama at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts. We also have a cat called Harrods and a hamster called Skittle, who is hardly ever interesting at all, (although he ate a raisin yesterday.)
How long does it take you to write a book?
Cathy and I like to work on several different books at once, so I'm usually busy on a couple of funny things like the Seriously Silly Stories as well as something more serious like 'Stone Girl, Bone Girl’ or one of my art books. Other artists will illustrate some of the books so they won't take more than five or six months, but the Anholt's Artists books take about two years each because of the amount of research involved. Chimp and Zee took almost four years to get right, so that's something of a record. It's not because we spend all day in bed, it's just that we like to get every word and every picture exactly right. Now you know why so many authors are old and wrinkly!
Do you use a computer or write first drafts long hand?
I do almost all the writing on a computer and of course we use email to edit books with our publishers. However we NEVER do our illustrations on the computer because we love the directness of paint on paper (that means we like getting messy!) and we have never found any software which can improve on that. We want our books to look like they have been made by a human bean. Not a machine.
We like our books to have a slightly 'home made' quality, because they ARE made at home and are based on our real day to day experiences.
Do you have a writing routine or do you just write when you feel like it?
Well every day is different. But a typical morning might go like this:
8.00 Cathy and Laurence wake up.
8.30 Laurence: Porridge. Catherine: Toast and marmalade (chunky). Harrods: nasty meaty stuff from a tin.
9.00 Stroll up to our shop. Sign a few books, make sure monkey is pedalling in window display.
9.30 Walk on the beach. Chat. Ideas time!
10.30 Coffee, sticky bun. Chat to Ruth who runs our business.
11.00 Off to our studios.
1.30 C&L: Salad with cheese. H: More nasty meaty stuff.
Cathy and I often call in to ask each other about this or that and there are many occasions when we sit together all day and 'brainstorm' ideas. I also spend a lot of time 'on the road', at book events or at schools in the UK or abroad, such as a five-week trip to Cyprus, Singapore and Indonesia where I met hundreds of cool kids and climbed a volcano. We spend a lot of time with friends or family in the evening, but we sometimes work again for an hour or two later in the day. It's not too hard because we both love what we do.
What’s so special about your bookshop?
The Chimp and Zee, Bookshop by the Sea is the only shop in the UK which is owned by authors. We sell our signed books and lots of cool stuff related to the books such as Chimp and Zee finger-puppets, posters, prints and even original artwork. Although it’s quite small, the shop took a team of model makers more than a year to create. Cathy and I tried to design something unlike any other shop, so that visitors would feel as if they were stepping inside a storybook. Visitors write some wonderful things in the comment book, so we think it must be working? I wish my bedroom was like this...The best shop in the whole wide world? We come to Chimp and Zee EVERY time we go on holiday... I mean WOW! Holy Cow!
There are all kinds of interesting things inside, such as a full size oak tree which stretches right up to the roof, lots of moving models, a giant book which kids can climb inside and a gallery selling posters and prints of our illustrations? Do yourself a favour and BEG your mum or dad to take you to the seaside at Lyme Regis!
You can see some pictures here.
Where did you train to be artists?
We each had eight years at art school. We both took our degree at the fantastic Falmouth School of Art in Cornwall, (our son, Tom went there too) and then we went to London. Cathy took a Master’s Degree in Printmaking at the Royal College of Art and I took my MA in Painting at the Royal Academy.
Why do you like writing for children?
Because it's the best job in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE! How else would you get paid for playing around with ideas or just daydreaming? Besides, we love meeting kids and working with publishers, teachers and librarians.
How do you get your ideas?
Ideas come from all around, at any time. It's really a way of looking at things; for example, if you had just crash-landed on this planet from outer space, you would think that ‘ordinary’ things, such as dogs or cars, were ABSOLUTELY EXTRAORDINARY and as for PEOPLE...!!
So, it's possible to learn to look at things from a slightly sideways direction and that’s what artists like van Gogh and Picasso did. A crumpled piece of paper can be as amazing as the Swiss Alps covered in snow if you look at it in the right way!
I can honestly say that we have never been short of ideas for books. The hard part is to pick out one or two really good, simple ideas and squash them into a story shape.
Have you always been a writer and an artist? If not, what else have you done?
I've done lots of peculiar jobs including hotel-night-receptionist, tropical-fish salesman, factory worker, carpenter and even the hardest job of all: school teaching. None of them seemed exactly right until I discovered an amazing invention called a children's book - I opened the cover and stepped inside?
Has anyone ever asked you where you get your ideas?Err, yes...I have been asked once or twice. I wish you could just walk into an Ideas Shop and buy a large bag of ideas, but it's not so simple. All I can say is that ideas grow anywhere, anytime - up a tree, in the bath, in the middle of the night. LOOK! There's one now!
Do you have any brothers or sisters?
I have two brothers and a sister. Danny works with horses. He was Head Trainer at the Hong King Jockey Club and now runs the equestrian centre at Millfield School. Simon is an international branding expert and government adviser. Alison has a background in publishing and lives in New England.
How do you relax?
A long soak in a warm book.
What were your favourite books when you were young?
1. The Cat in the Hat by Dr Suess
2. The Tintin books by Hergé
3. The Owl Service by Alan Garner
4. The Catcher In The Rye by J.D.Salinger
Have you got any advice for someone who wants to write?
Words are wings so fly away.
But if that’s not helpful enough, you download my Tips for Writers here.
What is the best place in the world?
Can I choose two places? Well I’m going to anyway.
No 1: The beautiful woods, beaches and hills in Dorset where I live.
No 2: Amsterdam, the city where I grew up and the place I return to at least once a
Year. It’s the most cosmopolitan city in the world: Concise Oxford Dictionary definition: COSMOPOLITAN adj. & noun: one of or from or knowing many parts of the world. b consisting of people from many or all parts. 2 free from national limitations or prejudices.
Is there anything that you would like to brag about?
Hmmm? Well, how’s this for starters?
I was invited to the world premiere of the first two Harry Potter movies and Cathy and I spent a day at the studios watching filming. We met the actors and wandered around the Great Hall at Hogwarts. One of the brilliant things about being an author is that you get to do loads of interesting things like that. I’ve been to tea at Buckingham Palace on two occasions and to Downing Street too. I’ve been lucky enough to meet loads of clever and amazing people. Because our books are published in lots of languages, we also travel quite a bit; I’ve just returned from an incredible trip to the Far East! I went up volcanoes and deep into the rainforest? Hey, it’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it!
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Life is what you make it, chum,
Choose your kind of luck,
Stretch up for some starlight, son,
Or wind up in the muck.
What colour are your pyjamas?
I have a blue pair and a red pair. On Mondays and Tuesdays I wear the red pair, on Wednesdays and Thursdays I wear the blue pair, on Fridays I wear red bottoms and blue tops, on Saturdays I wear blue bottoms and red tops and on Sundays I don't wear anything except a yellow bobble hat.
There, now you know everything about me. If you still haven’t read all my books then click here to buy signed copies immediately at www.anholt.co.uk
Thank you for answering our questions, Laurence.
It’s been emotional.