His first experience of professional illustration was when he tried to draw cartoons to illustrate articles in a banking journal.
During this time he worked with children's author Nick Butterworth, and together they developed a cartoon strip for the Sunday Express magazine, later to become a first series of children's picture books. In 1989 The Blue Balloon established him as a truly original voice in children's picture books.
He is married with two children and says, 'I've always foisted the books on the children at every conceivable stage of production, eager for reaction, and remember showing my son, then six, the illustrations for The Blue Balloon. His only comment was, "It's not your best work, is it dad?" He wouldn't elaborate. Without the experience of having children of my own I doubt that I would have been capable of writing effectively for children.
And yet it's true that good work really springs from trying to please yourself.'
One Bear At Bedtime (Hodder Children's Books, 4.99), a delightful counting book published in 1987, was Mick's first solo title and is still going strong.
Since then he has become one of the most popular picture book authors of our time, selling in many languages the world over. He has won many awards including the Children's Book Award for Threadbear.
Mick Inkpen's most popular creations are Wibbly Pig and, of course, Kipper, with titles including Kipper's Toybox and Kipper's Birthday (Hodder Children's Books, 4.99 each) and Kipper's A to Z (Hodder Children's Books, Pounds 6.99), which is the basis for our Nursery Topics alphabet poster (see 'To the letter', page 20).
In his latest title, Blue Nose Island: Ploo and the Terrible Gnobbler (Hodder Children's Books, 10.99), Inkpen has created an entirely different landscape. The story features Dig, a dog with a blue nose, Ploo and Honk Owl. It tells of the day when the sun doesn't come up and the moon becomes stuck at the top of Blue Nose Volcano. Someone is going to have to do something... and so begins an adventure to the Junglewood, where the Terrible Gnobbler lives.
* Reader offer *
We have ten copies of Blue Nose Island: Ploo and the Terrible Gnobbler by Mick Inkpen (Hodder Children's Books, 10.99) to give away to Nursery World readers. Send your name and address on the back of a postcard or envelope, marked 'Blue Nose Island', to the address on page 3. Winners will be the first ten names drawn on 12 February.
