About David Lucas

I was born in Middlesbrough, in 1966, the third of six brothers, and as children
we were all dressed the same - same haircut, same jeans, same jumpers.
We came to London when I was five and at first we lived in a tent
before moving to a council flat in Hackney.
My parents both loved nature so I often spent holidays exploring forests and
wandering on the moors in Yorkshire or by the seashore.
I loved ruins and castles too - romantic, magical, haunted places.

I am a romantic: I believe the world is alive with gods and spirits and magic.
My drawing is picture-writing - I never draw from life - I make patterns, as if I was knitting with ink.
Writing, for me, is pattern-making too - combining words as if they were simple shapes,
making story-patterns that mix themes from my own life with those of myth and fairytales.
I love medieval art and folk art – art that is decorative, not just to be beautiful,
but because pattern-making is like a magic spell, a ritual, or a prayer.

I always enjoyed drawing and in my teens I became fascinated by mythology and folklore
and began writing stories, but I didn't do well at school.
I failed Art O' level and left school at sixteen.
Later on, I went to art college and afterwards did all kinds of part-time jobs
and it wasn't until I was in my thirties that I rediscovered my old love of fairytales
and began writing stories and inventing characters again.

My first book as author and illustrator was Halibut Jackson (Andersen Press 2003)
which was chosen as Amazon.com's 'favorite children's book of 2004'
and was a 'Best Children's Book of 2004' in Publishers' Weekly in the U.S.
In 2008 I was chosen as one of the UK's Best New Illustrators by the Booktrust.

My next book is called 'Cake Girl' and will be published by Andersen Press
in October this year.
I recently moved to Lewes, in Sussex, and I am currently working on
two picture books for Walker Books and a graphic novel.

photo by Merle Moustafa