Catherine Anholt

Catherine and Laurence Anholt are a husband and wife team who have produced about 200 children's books, published in more than 30 languages around the world. Their books have won numerous awards, including the Nestlé Smarties Gold Award on two occsions.

Catherine comes from an Irish family and is one of eight brothers and sisters. Catherine and Laurence met while studying Fine Art at Falmouth School of Art. They went on to take Master's Degrees at the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy respectively.

Around half of the Anholts' titles are illustrated by Catherine, including the Chimp and Zee series and numerous picture books published by Orchard Books.

The Anholts have been closely involved with a number of literacy charities and Catherine produced some of the original material for the highly successful government funded BookStart scheme, which encourages parents to share books with babies from the earliest possible age. Their work has taken them inside Downing Street and Buckingham Palace on several occasions.

Catherine and Laurence live near the sea in Devon. They have three grown up children: Claire works for the UN in New York, Tom Anholt is a painter living in Berlin and Maddy is an actor based in London.

Alongside her children's books, Catherine produces hundreds of painting and prints. You can see some of them at: www.catherineanholt.com