email: Penny Holroyde

website: www.nicolabayleyillustration.com

Nicola Bayley’s degree show at the Royal College of Art (just a few, small distinctive paintings) immediately caught the eye of publisher Tom Maschler and her first book, Nicola Bayley’s Book of Nursery Rhymes, was published by Cape in 1975. The book, illustrated with unusual charm and finesse and an almost enamelled luminosity that was to become her hallmark, was a huge success. She has since worked with an impressive list of authors and the enormously successful Mousehol Cat, written by Antonia Barber, is a perennial seller. Her latest work is an illustratred edition of The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story, published by Walker Books.