Photo of Lauren Child

Lauren Child

Lauren Child burst on to the children’s books scene in 1999 and has since published many bestselling and award-winning books, including those featuring the hugely popular Charlie and Lola, and the Clarice Bean series. Lauren was born in 1967, and grew up in Marlborough, Wiltshire. After studying Art at Manchester Polytechnic and London Art School, she worked in a variety of jobs, including assistant to Damien Hirst. She also started her own company, ‘Chandeliers for the People’, making exotic lampshades.

Her first children’s book Clarice Bean, That’s Me won a Bronze medal at the Nestle Smarties Book Awards. In 2000, she won the prestigious Kate Greenaway medal for I Will Not Ever, Never Eat a Tomato followed by a second Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in 2002 for That Pesky Rat. Clarice Bean became the star of Lauren’s first novel Utterly Me, Clarice Bean in 2002, and went on to appear in two more novels. A television series based on her Charlie and Lola books has also become a huge hit for CBBC.

Lauren Child first introduced the character of Ruby Redfort in her three award-winning, bestselling Clarice Bean novels. Since then she has been inundated with letters from fans asking for the Ruby Redfort books. And it must have worked, because the first two in the series, Ruby Redfort: Look Into My Eyes and Ruby Redfort: Take Your Last Breath have already been published to great critical and commercial success.

Lauren Child’s illustrations contain many different mediums including magazine cuttings, collage, material and photography as well as traditional watercolours. Lauren lives in London, where she works for the Design Agency ‘Big Fish’. In 2008 she was announced as UNESCO’s Artist for Peace and in 2010 she was awarded an MBE for services to literature.

Books by Lauren Child

  • Blink and You Die

    Blink and You Die

  • But Excuse Me That Is My Book

    But Excuse Me That Is My Book

  • Catch Your Death

    Catch Your Death

  • Charlie and Lola: One Thing

    Charlie and Lola: One Thing

  • Clarice Bean, Don't Look Now

    Clarice Bean, Don't Look Now

  • Clarice Bean Spells Trouble

    Clarice Bean Spells Trouble

  • Clarice Bean, What Planet Are You From?

    Clarice Bean, What Planet Are You From?

  • Feel the Fear

    Feel the Fear

  • Hubert Horatio: How to Raise Your Grown-Ups

    Hubert Horatio: How to Raise Your Grown-Ups

  • I Am Not Sleepy and I Will NOT Go to Bed

    I Am Not Sleepy and I Will NOT Go to Bed

  • Look into My Eyes

    Look into My Eyes

  • Pick Your Poison

    Pick Your Poison

  • Pippi Longstocking

    Pippi Longstocking

  • Ruby Redfort: Look Into My Eyes

    Ruby Redfort: Look Into My Eyes

  • Ruby Redfort: Look Into My Eyes

    Ruby Redfort: Look Into My Eyes

  • Ruby Redfort: Take Your Last Breath

    Ruby Redfort: Take Your Last Breath

  • Ruby Redfort: Take Your Last Breath

    Ruby Redfort: Take Your Last Breath

  • Take Your Last Breath

    Take Your Last Breath

  • Utterly Me, Clarice Bean

    Utterly Me, Clarice Bean

Awards

Lauren Child has won the Nestle Smarties prize four times and the Kate Greenaway Prize for I Will Not Ever Eat a Tomato. Lauren has an MBE for Services to Literature, and in 2017 was named the Children’s Laureate 2017-19.