I was born in London. My mum, Ruth Brown, is a children’s book illustrator and author. Later on in his career, my dad, Ken Brown, was too. So, growing up, there were always lots of books around. Mum and Dad worked from home, so I would see their books develop from day to day. I even got to model for them a few times and be in their books!
I studies printed textiles at Middlesex University. I worked in the clothing industry for a few years designing textiles and graphics before changing direction and becoming an illustrator and printmaker.
My first books were two board books, Shapes and Farm. The illustrations were very simple patterns for babies. A few years later I worked with Walker again on A World of Information, which came from a series of informational screen prints that I had been producing. The first in the series was a print that detailed the names and locations of the sea regions of the British Isles that most people know from BBC Radio 4’s The Shipping Forecast. This print was very popular and encouraged me to develop the theme further. The next one was “The Beaufort Windforce Scale” then “Phases of the Moon.” Now there are twenty-one screen prints in the series and thirty in A World of Information.
I have a studio on Fish Island, which is in East London and is not really an island but surrounded by water on three sides. It’s right next to the Olympic Stadium. I make screen prints and lino cuts in my studio.