Richard Brassey was born near Stamford in Lincolnshire, England, long ago when televisions were very small and their screens were only black and white. In those days books about BABAR, THE LITTLE ELEPHANT were much bigger and they were in colour!
When his daughter, Pikka, was four, she asked him to tell her a story about a famous lion. We all know who he is, don’t we? You can see his statues all over the place. Her wish was his command and he also painted some pictures to go with the story. THE FAMOUS LION
was published by Jonathan Cape in 1980.
When his son George was six, he claimed he could speak monkey language. After some time spent chatting to chimpanzees at Monkeyworld, Richard wrote a book which shows you how chimpanzees really do talk to each other. He painted some pictures for that too. HOW TO SPEAK CHIMPANZEE was published in 1995.
Richard has written and illustrated “a host of colourful and original books for children” according to his publisher, Orion Children's’ Books.
The bestselling NESSIE, THE LOCH NESS MONSTER has sold nearly a quarter of a million copies.
THE STORY OF SCOTLAND won both the Times Educational Supplement-Saltire Society Children's Book Prize and the The Scottish Arts Council Children’s Book Award for 2000. He has twice been shortlisted for The Blue Peter Book Awards.
Pikka is now grown up. She has many strings to her bow. You can find out how many strings by looking here.
George is studying cinema at New York University. Sometimes he bumps into Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen who are also students there.
Richard lives in London. He is waiting for some grandchildren to come along and suggest a few new good ideas for books. In the meantime he’s working away on the BRILLIANT BRITS series and finishing a book of ghost stories. It will be called GHOSTS!