David Tazzyman

I was born and grew up in Leicester.I studied Illustration (BA HONS) at Manchester Metropolitan University 1990 - 93.

After my degree I travelled around Asia for 3 years. I had an exhibition at The ity Gallery in Leicester upon my return from Asia of the drawings that I did in the mountains of India and Nepal. I then moved to London in 1997 to pursue my career. Luckily I found success as a commercial illustrator quite quickly and have illustrated campaigns for Cream, Bass, Natwest, Vodafone, Orange, Yahoo, Fiat and We Love Muzic among others. I have also done editorials for various magazines and all the broadsheets. I still work in the commercial arena as well as illustrating children's books.

My career in children's books started in 2006 when I was approached by Egmont to do the Mr Gum series of books. This was a runaway success and I feel very privileged to have worked with the brilliant author Andy Stanton. I have since illustrated the Agatha Parrot series by Kjartan Poskitt and The Donut Diaries series by Anthony McGowan. In children's fiction I recently finished the third book of the Stinkbomb & Ketchup Face series by John Dougherty and I am currently working on the Joey Pigza series by Jack Gantos, the second book of the Circus of Thieves series by William Sutcliffe.

My first picture book came out in June 2013 called Eleanor's Eyebrows by Timothy Knapman and has had some great reviews. I have just finished illustrating my second picture book called You Can't Take An Elephant On A Bus by Patricia Cleveland Peck, publishing April 2015.

Andy Stanton and I have won a lot of awards for the Mr Gum books. The big ones are Red House Children's Book Award, two Blue Peter book awards for Best Book With Pictures, and the first inaugural Roald Dahl Funny Prize Award. We have won numerous regional awards too.

I live in South London with my partner Melanie and my three boys, Stanley, Atticus & Albert.