Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book? Award-winning author by Lauren Child (author)

Lauren Child burst on to the children’s books scene in 1999 and has since published many bestselling and award-winning books, including those featuring the hugely popular Charlie and Lola, and the Clarice Bean series. Lauren was born in 1967, and grew up in Marlborough, Wiltshire. After studying Art at Manchester Polytechnic and London Art School, she worked in a variety of jobs, including assistant to Damien Hirst. She also started her own company, ‘Chandeliers for the People’, making exotic lampshades.

Her first children’s book Clarice Bean, That’s Me won a Bronze medal at the Nestle Smarties Book Awards. In 2000, she won the prestigious Kate Greenaway medal for I Will Not Ever, Never Eat a Tomato followed by a second Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in 2002 for That Pesky Rat. Clarice Bean became the star of Lauren’s first novel Utterly Me, Clarice Bean in 2002, and went on to appear in two more novels. A television series based on her Charlie and Lola books has also become a huge hit for CBBC. Read more