About The Author

Julia Donaldson is the outrageously talented, prize-winning author of the world’s best-loved picture books, and was the 2011-2013 UK Children’s Laureate. Her books include The Troll, What the Ladybird Heard and the modern classic The Gruffalo, which has sold over 13.5 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over sixty languages. Julia also writes fiction as well as poems, plays and songs and her brilliant live children’s shows are always in demand. Julia and her husband Malcolm divide their time between Sussex and Edinburgh.
Axel was born in Hamburg, Germany. At school he was good at art, but didn’t think of a career in illustration until he won a cuddly purple cow in a drawing competition.

He moved to England in 1982 to learn English and study illustration at the Bath Academy of Art and then set up home in London. Axel illustrated a number of books for various publishers, and in 1993 Kate suggested him as the illustrator for Julia Donaldson’s first picture book text, A Squash and a Squeeze. This was the start of a hugely successful partnership: their bestselling modern classic, The Gruffalo, has sold over three-and-a-half million copies worldwide, and the TV animation was broadcast on Christmas day 2009.

Axel has illustrated a number of other highly successful books, including Muddle Farm, and his books have been translated into 42 languages.

Axel lives in London with his partner and young daughter.