Alex T. Smith
As a child
I was born in Coventry, England in 1985. I was an imaginative child and spent much of my time reading and writing and drawing pictures, as well as playing games with my friends, or by myself. My favourite place to play and draw was in a den I would make behind an armchair. Quite often I would get my grandad to come and join me in there and we would read stories together. My mum and dad were both teachers and in the summer holidays I would have the run of both of their schools and the school grounds to play in which was great fun.
As an adult
I always wrote and illustrated little books really from when I could hold a pencil. I considered training to be a set and costume designer for films and TV having worked for a short while as a production assistant and then designer for a large outdoor theatrical events company. After studying briefly in Wales, I completed my studies in Illustration at Coventry University and graduated with a First. During the final months of my course I won second place in the Macmillan Prize for Children’s Book Illustration, and got my first book deal shortly afterwards whilst I was putting up my final degree show! I then went on to meet my agent and I was very lucky as book deals with Scholastic UK and Hodder Children’s Books followed. I’ve also worked on a wide variety of other jobs across publishing, television and advertising. I spend quite a bit of time "Uncling". I have a grown-up niece, three young bonkers nephews and two godchildren, and find them all very inspiring. I lived for a few years in Yorkshire, before returning to Warwickshire. I now split my time between there and London.
As an artist
I work from my studio at home, but because I spend quite a bit of time travelling to various events and festivals, I tend to get a lot of my writing done on trains or on planes! When I’m writing I tend to write bits as and when they come to me. This can be at any time or place, so often a lot of my books start life being typed into the Notes app on my phone. My illustrations are always hand drawn with pencil on cartridge paper. Then I scan this in and colour it in digitally on my computer. I’m quite indecisive, so working like this helps me as I can dither about and not have to keep drawing it out over and over again. I used to draw with an old dip pen and ink, and paint my work, but I’m very clumsy and would ruin so much of it by accidentally smudging it or spilling my paint water all over it. Working with pencils is so much less risky! I have written and illustrated over ten picture books, and have illustrated a large number of titles written by other people. I recently reimagined and illustrated the covers for all of Eva Ibbotson’s spooky back catalogue as well as illustrating the 60th anniversary edition of The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith. I am the creator of the CLAUDE series of early readers. They are currently published in 16 languages across five continents and am working with a Sixtten South and Disney Junior EMEA to bring Claude’s adventures to the small screen. They will air in Autumn 2017 across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. As well as the above, I am currently writing and illustrating a new fiction series for Hodder Children’s Books about an adventurous penguin!
Things you didn't know about Alex T. Smith
- I have three very tiny, very naughty dogs who “supervise” me everyday in my studio and sometimes come with me to events.
- I also share my studio with a very small tortoise called Tonto. (tontothetortoise.com)
- I’m vegetarian.
- My favourite things are chocolate chip cookies, dogs, swimming, autumn, drawing, seasides in winter, doing yoga and napping on the sofa.
- Things I don’t like: Heights, garlic, clowns, running, octopi.
- I worry quite a lot about octopus attacks…
- My favourite cities in the world are Reykjavik, Stockholm, Marrakech, Copenhagen, Edinburgh and New York.
- When I was a little boy, I thought when I grew up I might like to be an astronaut or a rabbit. ( I thought “being a rabbit” was something you could do as a job!)
- I hope one day soon to have some pet chickens. One will be called Barbara. (Babs, for short.)
- My favourite colours are hot pink, bright orange, sunshine yellow and duck-egg blue.