04/06/2026
Me encanta...cada ilustración representa la mirada de un niño...
Over the years it seems that I’ve made a collection of books based around my own family. This illustration is from My Dad Penguin Books 2000, the first in the series. It’s also a tribute to dads everywhere.
For a long time I'd been wanting to write a book about my own Dad. One day I found an old suitcase of my mother’s, inside was Dad’s old dressing gown. For the first time in decades I remembered what it was like to be a young boy who thought his Dad could do anything. It was a breakthrough, for I suddenly
knew exactly how to make the book. The nostalgic effect of the dressing gown inspired me to write a story specifically about my own father and the way I felt about him as a young boy. The dressing gown – or at least its distinctive pattern – is the visual key that links every picture, and I play the shape game with it throughout the book. Dad wears it constantly, wether walking the tightrope or playing football, and even when he transforms into something else – such as when he “swims like a fish” – the pattern of the dressing gown survives in his scales.
# hero
