Mike Smith

Mike graduated with distinction from the MA in Children's Book Illustration from Cambridge School of Art in 2011. In 2010 he won the Macmillan Prize for children's book illustration, for a story called Edward Hopper and the Carrot Crunch.

His picture books include The Hundred Decker Bus and The Hundred Decker Rocket, published by Macmillan, and Catch the Cuddle (Egmont).

He has also produced strips for The Phoenix comic, including the long-running wordless strip Planet of the Shapes, and illustrated four of the First Names biography series for David Fickling Books, as well as all the covers in that series. He drew the pictures for Roger Stevens' collection of poems entitled Razzmatazz, published by Otter-Barry Books.

For ten years he drew a weekly comic in a small pocket diary, using pen and watercolour. This can be seen online at blogshank.com.

Mike loves writing and drawing stories where humour grows from character — the more ridiculous the better! He lives in the Forest of Dean.