Axel Scheffler
About Author
Axel Scheffler was born in 1957 in Hamburg, Germany. At school, although always good at art, he never really considered a career in illustration. But long before he began his professional life, he had won his first drawing prize for an international chocolate company his prize was a cuddly lilac cow.
Axel went on from school to study History of Art at the University of Hamburg but he didn't like the course and decided to leave. Knowing that he wanted to live in another country and learn a second language, he moved to England to study illustration at the Bath Academy of Art. During his time there he spent much of his time drawing sheep and peacocks in the grounds of Corsham Court.
After graduating with a first class degree, Axel moved to London where he began illustrating for a variety of English and German advertising companies, magazines and newspapers. He took his portfolio to a number of publishers and Faber commissioned him to illustrate The Piemakers by Helen Cresswell and The Bottle Rabbit by Bernard McCabe. In 1989, Walker asked Axel to illustrate a text by Jon Blake, You're a Hero, Daley B.
A writer called Julia Donaldson was also writing songs for Playdays at this time and her song A Squash and a Squeeze was commissioned to be a picture book. Axel Scheffler was recommended as an illustrator for the text and an award-winning team was created.
Their next book, The Gruffalo, was published in March 1999 and has already become a modern classic, selling more than 2 million copies worldwide and translated into 30 languages. It was nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal, and it won the 1999 Smarties Gold Medal Award for picture books and the 2000 Blue Peter Award for The Best Book to Read Aloud. It was followed by Monkey Puzzle, also nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal, Room on the Broom, winner of the 2003 Blue Peter Award for The Best Book to Read Aloud, The Smartest Giant in Town, The Snail and the Whale and most recently The Gruffalo's Child, the long awaited sequel to The Gruffalo published in September 2004 and in paperback in September 2005 and has already won the British Book Award: WH Smith Best Children's Book Award 2005 and has been shortlisted for the Red House Children's Book Award. Axel's latest title, CHARLIE COOK'S FAVOURITE BOOK, a glorious library within a book published in September 2005.
Still living in London, Axel makes frequent visits to continental Europe. His hobbies include walking, cooking and reading and beadwork.
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