Revealed! My debut illustrated book

And it is...

Hello to you all!

I don’t know if you saw, but my first illustrated book published yesterday. I can finally reveal it is The Night Before Christmas, published by The Folio Society.

With the publication of the book, I am feeling very reflective as I think back to where I was four years ago. In August 2019 I handed in my notice with the company I had been with for fifteen years! Two weeks later I began as a student on the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, venturing out into the big, wide world to begin again, aged forty-two as an illustrator. Before I began the course I was petrified of drawing from my imagination, and it was something I found the most intimidating during the course. But as I progressed through, learning from all the wonderful teachers, experimenting, and trusting myself to explore, play and push out of my comfort zone, I discovered a brand new creative voice - telling stories through illustrations. If I think back to little old nervous me, embarking on the MA, totally afraid to draw a character from my imagination, I can’t really believe how far I have come

some images from the book

A month or so after graduation I got a call out of the blue; it was the art director from The Folio Society, and she asked if I would be interested in illustrating The Night Before Christmas. It took a while to actually believe it was real, I remember at the end of the call saying to her, something along the lines of: so this is real? You are actually offering me the book?! And I have a very clear memory of jumping up and down in front of my very bemused, fifteen-year-old son yelling about Christmas…Folio…dream job…!!

It was an absolute joy and privilege to work on this book with my wonderful art director, Raquel and the whole team at The Folio Society.

Bringing this classic poem to life in a picture book format was a dream come true. Creating the family, their pets and the man himself was a delight. I can’t wait to share some of the behind-the-scenes work on the book - early sketches, and artwork experiments, but, for today, I am just celebrating! 🎉🎄🌟

You can read all about quite how special The Folio Society are here - it is a dream come true to be published by them. The book is available exclusively from Folio through their website - you can order your copy here.

Ella xx