Jonathan Emmett

Jonathan Emmett was born in Leicestershire in 1965, the son of a rig fitter and a primary school teacher.

Jonathan loved books from an early age and some of his earliest memories are of visiting his local library. The picture books that he borrowed then, including Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss and Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson have had a great influence on the picture books that he now writes.

It was while Jonathan was at college, studying architecture, that he first started developing his own illustrated texts, illustrating poems and lyrics that he'd written. Pleased with the results, he found himself spending more and more time on writing and illustration. While working as an architect, he began pursuing a career in children's books in his spare time, eventually going full-time in 1995, a few months before his thirtieth birthday.

As well as writing picture books such as Bringing Down the Moon, Someone Bigger, Pigs Might Fly and Ruby Flew Too, Jonathan also writes and paper-engineers pop-up books. His books have won several awards including the Red House Children's Book Award for Pigs Might Fly and the Sheffield Children's Book Award for The Pig's Knickers.

He now lives in Nottingham with his wife, Rachel, and children, Max and Laura.

You can visit Jonathan's website at www.scribblestreet.co.uk