Daisy Hirst

About me
I am from London and have wanted to write and illustrate picture books since before I could write. As a child I liked reading, making things, drawing, writing or climbing trees, and I haven’t changed much. I did my first degree English and Creative Writing at the University of Warwick, and as a teenager and young adult I mainly wrote poems. But I never stopped reading picture books or doodling, and went on to study children’s book illustration at Cambridge School of Art, completing my MA in 2013.

About my work
I started working with Walker Books on my first picture book, The Girl with the Parrot on Her Head, just after finishing my MA. After that I've created lots of picture books including four books in the Natalie & Alphonse series; Get Real, Mallory; I Like Trains; Hilda and the Runaway Baby, and many more. I have also written and illustrated comics for LOAf magazine, and my illustrations have appeared on greetings cards,T-shirts, advent calendars and a coffee tricycle. I have taught illustration to adults and teenagers and led lots of children's workshops. I have never had a parrot on my head, but once during a school visit I met two children who had.

Three things you might not know about me:
1. I built a sailing boat called Loris with my dad. We made it mainly from plywood, stuck together with epoxy resin and cable ties.
2. When I was little, some of my favourite picture books were Avocado Baby by John Burningham, Angelo by Quentin Blake, Acorns and Stew by Ruth Orbach, and Mr Rabbit and the Lovely Present by Charlotte Zolotow & Maurice Sendak. My favourite audiobook was Russell Hoban’s A Bargain for Frances.
3. One Christmas I made dolls of twenty-one members of my family out of pipe cleaners.

I live in London and you can follow my on Instagram @Deenface.