.
I
live in the beautiful town of Guildford
near
London, England, with the lovely Teresa and our two teenage kids.
Standing almost 6'6” in height I was hoping to be the tallest
cartoonist
in syndication but Rodd Perry of 'Brevity'
fame tells me he stands a ridiculous 6'8”. I have a fear of meeting the Queen and accidentally curtseying.
As
a child, I used to set myself
cartoon drawing examinations in the hope that one day I'd be good
enough to be a syndicated cartoonist.
After 5 great years at boarding
school in the heart of the beautiful English countryside I
spent a year doing volunteer
work
in Egypt where I survived a plane crash. On my return to the UK I
enrolled in classes at the Epsom School of Art but having accidentally
left all my work on the train one day I was forced to abandon college
and look for a job. I was lucky enough to find work as a studio junior
in a small advertising agency where I learned to be a graphic designer.
In the years following I helped run a small design agency where my
specialty was designing ice lolly
wrappers. Much of my work can still be seen in trash cans
around the UK and Europe.
In 2000 I decided to pursue my lifelong ambition of becoming a cartoon
illustrator and have been working as an illustrator of children's
schoolbooks ever since.
In 2002, I created the comic strip 'Ollie and Quentin' as an homage to
all the poor lugworms that I'd used as bait while sea fishing in my
youth. 'Ollie and Quentin' was launched by King
Features in the United States and Internationally on January
7th 2008.
A champion 400m runner in my youth I still enjoy running and regularly
race over 10k.