Here's a competition to celebrate the imminent arrival of 'Diggory Digger and the Dinosaurs'.
Perfect for a rainy afternoon activity and you might win a signed copy of the book.
The story is written by the brilliant, Roald Dahl Funny Prize winning, Peter Bently.

Sharjah Children's Reading Festival 2013. Part one.

As everyone knows, Sharjah is to Dubai as Hove is to Brighton- a slightly more sober neighbour, just as important ( yeah right) and a bit less glitzy. When I was asked to attend the festival and told I would be flown out business class and put up at the Hilton, I thought long and hard for a split second and decided I would go for it, after all, it would be a culturally enhancing experience.
 The flight was great fun, a seat that turns into a bed, proper china for meals and everything!

Creating a world. Tom and Millie.

World Book Day tour 2013

Blimey, lots of exciting things have been going on around World Book Day this year. It was time for a mini tour, which is always good fun, and a nice change from the studio. I popped in to my old stomping ground of Hackney, and also to St Albans, Hertford, Walthamstow, Putney, the wonderful Discover centre in Stratford and to Seven Stories in Newcastle. It gave me the chance to get off my studio chair  and whip up a bit of enthusiasm for books. Like at this 'Giraffes Can't Dance' event...

Notice all the beautifully painted ossicones? Fact of the day: that's what the tufts on a giraffe's head are called, easily remembered because it rhymes with 'silly bones' (- which they are). 

Although the main point of these events is to give me the chance to show off a bit, I also like to get the children to do a bit of creating. After talking about how I do it and doing a bit of drawing for them, I ask them all to make up their own animal picture book character. I'm amazed by the freshness of the images they come up with, just look at these elephants by Amelia, Delphi and Maddie for example. I'm rather partial to elephants.

Character of the week #2 Littlebob.

Here’s Littlebob, he’s the rabbit and, along with the purple penguin, Plum, the star of “Partytime with Littlebob and Plum” and “Playtime with Littlebob and Plum”.

Character of the week  #1. Tortoise from "Giraffes Can't Dance"
When I was young I had a pet tortoise and being quite a shy child, I rather identified with them.
It can be handy to have a shell to retreat into sometimes when you've got two older brothers!
Tortoise is a good friend to Gerald. Look, he's there with him at the beginning,

The World Of Tom and Millie

Well, I’ve been meaning to get this blog up and running for ages but have just been too busy (or watching Madmen and Homeland or making castles out of cardboard boxes). But now, now I intend to show little snippets of what I’m up to with my illustrations more regularly and it's all seamlessly linked to my website. Peter James Field (peterjamesfield.co.uk), in my studio, drew the portrait picture!

Tom and Millie’s World.