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Nadia Shireen

Nadia Shireen: I know it’s hardly original but Roald Dahl’s books were really important to me – I was obsessed with them. I still am, of course – I went to the Roald Dahl Museum last year and got all weepy looking at some original manuscripts. I used to read pretty much everything and anything though. There were always PG Wodehouse books lying around the house and I got into those quite early on.

Playing by the book: What sort of games did you play as a child? What was your favourite way of spending time?

Nadia Shireen: I was generally a quiet child and always liked drawing and writing. I’d make little comics and teach my friends how to draw Garfield. Apart from that, I used to like tinkering about on my keyboard and reading magazines. I’d also watch the same film on video over and over and over again… I was obsessed with Jaws, which probably explains a lot.

Nadia's workspace

Playing by the book: Your route to becoming a published author and illustrator was slightly circuitous – for a while it looked like you might become a lawyer. What was it about the Law that appealed to you?

Nadia Shireen: My law degree came about because my A-level subjects were Art, English and Law. Of the three, Law seemed to be the most ‘sensible’ subject to pursue at university. Certainly nobody at the time, teachers included, encouraged me to carry on with art. If I’d drawn funny characters for my Art A-level, I’m pretty sure they’d have failed me! Anyway, it soon became clear that I would make a rubbish lawyer… but by then it was just a matter of gritting my teeth and getting through the degree.

Playing by the book: Is it true you worked at Smash Hits (for readers outside the UK, Smash Hits was a kids’/teenagers’ magazine about pop music that was a seminal part of many childhoods in the ’80s and ’90s)? So does music play a large part in your life? What do you like listening to? Do you listen to music whilst writing and illustrating?

Nadia Shireen: It is true! I worked as a sub editor on magazines for about 10 years, which included about three years at Smash Hits. I loved that magazine when I was growing up, so it was great fun to end up working there. I didn’t necessar

Last week I reviewed a beautiful new picture book, Daisy plays Hide-and-Seek by Ellie Sandall. In August I’ll be getting to meet her face to face, at the Just So Festival, but over the last few days I’ve managed to spend some “virtual” time with her, finding out more about her work and inspiration.

Ellie and a live model!

Playing by the book: First up, perhaps you could give us a bit of background – what roads have brought you here, to being an author and illustrator? Did you always want to create books?

Ellie Sandall: I was always drawing as a child, and I loved to write stories too. I remember making a little book about a teddy bear that got lost at a market when I was maybe five or six- I really wish I still had it! My mum is very creative and we often had some sort of project going at home. In secondary school my love of art continued, and I was lucky that my form room was in the Art block, so that I was always surrounded by paint and clay. I used to spend the majority of my breaks at school doodling, and even doodled during lessons, where I would reserve the back page of my exercise book for drawing. My teachers never seemed to mind, as I always got my work done!

After a brief stint of wanting to be a vet (to indulge my love of animals), I pursued my artistic ambitions and completed a foundation course in art and design, followed by a degree in graphic design at Bath Spa University. I really enjoyed the sequential illustration module of my degree course, and particularly the children’s book project I had worked on, and so I wanted to take this aspect further. This led me to the MA Children’s Book Illustration course at Cambridge School of Art, and from there to getting my first book deal with Egmont!

A colour sketch of Daisy by Ellie Sandall. Click to see larger image.

Playing by the book: What books were important to you as a child? Can you remember any picture books you loved? What books were read to you that you really enjoyed?

Ellie Sandall:I remember when I was very young I had a Mother Goose nursery rhyme book which I used to get my mum to read to me a lot- I could recite most of the rhymes from an early age, from looking at the pictures. I actually have a recording on cassette of me reciting this book, aged two! Another of my absolute favourites was (and still is) Eric Carle’s ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. Other favourites included ‘ 3 Comments on An interview with Ellie Sandall, last added: 5/30/2011