Karl Newson is an internationally best-selling, multi-award-winning children's book biscuit!
Author of the multi-award winning I Am a Tiger series, the best-selling I Really Really Need a Wee series, and many, many more. His stories have been translated in over 30 languages around the world.
Karl grew up in Norwich, England, in a house beside a field full of adventures. He wrote his first bedtime story when his children were little… and he’s been writing stories ever since. He lives in London now, in a wonky old house full of pot plants and books.
Karl’s stories have been shortlisted for the Booktrust Storytime Prize (twice, for I Really Really Need a Wee and I Am a Tiger), the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Award (The Same But Different Too), the Alligator’s Mouth Award (The Hat Full of Secrets) and Oscar’s Book Prize (I Am a Tiger), and he is a winner of the Georgia Children’s Book Award, the South Dakota Children’s Book Award, the Leicester ‘Our Best Picture Book’ Award and the West Sussex Picture Book Award for I Am a Tiger, and a ‘BookstaGrammie’ for The Hat Full of Secrets.
Karl is represented by Jodie Hodges at United Agents.
Clients include: Macmillan Children's Books / Scholastic / Bloomsbury / Nosy Crow / Little Tiger / Andersen / Happy Yak (Quarto) / Walker Books / Owlet Press / Studio Press (Bonnier) / Words & Pictures (Quarto) / Stripes / Parragon Books / Maverick
Here are some QUESTIONS & ANSWERS, asked by Ben (aged 9) and Jack (aged 6)...
What is your favourite colour? Red
What is your favourite food? I'm a big fan of cake and biscuits. Chocolate fudge cake is the best cake in the world!
What do you like doing? Drawing, painting, writing, and listening to my record collection. I enjoy watching David Attenborough's documentaries too, and all things space related. And walking and exploring. And adding to my picture book collection. And discovering new illustrators and authors. And of course, dunking biscuits.
If you could travel to anywhere, where would you go? The moon! I've gazed up at it in wonder ever since I was a boy. I'd love to visit one day... a rocket ride would be preferable, but I would definitely have a go at climbing a ladder if there was one.
What is your favourite picture book? That's a tough one and it changes all the time. If I had to choose just one I think it would be Julia Donaldson's and Axel Scheffler's The Snail and the Whale. The idea of a tiny sea snail hitching a ride on the tail of a whale is nothing short of brilliant. Beautiful illustrations. Wonderfully told.
What is your favourite animal? An Elephant. One of my most favourite days was the day I fed an elephant. It curled its long winding trunk around the small leaf of lettuce I held out to it, and I was, for a moment, in a world of my own. I have a little-big elephant collection at home, everything from cards to coat hooks, wood carvings to candles. You could say I'm an elephant keeper (which would be my other dream job).
Where do you get your ideas from? Anywhere and everywhere! I like the sort of ideas that come out of the blue whilst I'm busy dunking my third biscuit, usually in the middle of another project. Sometime ideas are fully formed, sometimes its just a word or a doodle that will sow the seed. I take them for a walk in my notebook and see where I end up. The best ideas write themselves. The worst ones need a little bit of time to make right. But every idea is a keeper to me. You never know where it might lead to!
What do you dislike? Mashed potatoes! Bleurrgh! I'm not so keen on sleep either. Nor my chances of going to the moon...
What do you like? Biscuits! Drawing, painting and writing, and the exciting feeling that accompanies a new idea.
Thank you, Ben & Jack!
Selected interviews
★ How I became a children’s book author - People of Publishing - Oct 25th 2020
★ Questions with: Karl Newson - Bear Hunt Books - Oct 15th 2020
★ Karl Newson in Conversation: Writing, publishing, storytelling and our love of libraries - Sheffield Libraries Podcast - Oct 5th 2020
★ Interview with Karl Newson Author of For All The Stars Across The Sky - Acorn Books - April 10th 2019
★ KARL NEWSON: ‘I’M A BIG BELIEVER IN NOT TALKING DOWN TO CHILDREN IN STORIES’ - Curtis Brown Creative - 15th Jan 2019
★ Author Interview: Karl Newson - My Book Corner - Feb 2018
