Meet the illustrator: Jackie Morris

Meet the brilliant artist behind The Lost Words and the author of dozens of books including the new The Unwinding…

“…I loved the thought of tigers, snow leopards, the shapes of wild things…”

At The Children’s Furniture Company we love books – especially ones with striking and beautiful illustrations. The pictures we see in childhood stay with us for life –  so we thought it would be fun to meet the people who are making those memories for our own kids. 

Our latest ‘Meet the Illustrator’ Q&A is with Jackie Morris, who has created dozens of beautiful, haunting books celebrating the natural world, and won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2019 for her illustration of The Lost Words…

When did you first realise you could be an author – and an artist?

I was six when I first watched my dad drawing a bird. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t draw, but I knew then that I wanted to be able to do this when I grew up. I didn’t know what an artist was. I just wanted to be able to make a bird land on a piece of paper using a pencil.

You are known for your love of nature and drawing and painting beautiful but true-to-life animals. Did nature play a big role in your childhood and formative years?

I always loved animals, more than people. As I grew up I saw very little to respect about humans: they told lies, acted in very selfish and arrogant ways. I couldn’t understand the concept of land ownership and ‘private property’ and really hated the way we humans exploited the beauty of the earth. But I loved the thought of tigers, snow leopards, the shapes of wild things, these lives that knew nothing and cared less for us humans. 

How did you get started in children’s book illustration?

I started my first children’s book the week after my son was born. I’d been working as an illustrator for about ten years, and had recently designed a series of cards that were seen by the author Caroline Pitcher. It was her idea to ask a publisher to commission me to do my first book, Jo’s Storm.


You won the Kate Greenaway Medal this year for your illustration of The Lost Words – a beautiful book created together with Robert Macfarlane. What was that like to work on?

The Lost Words was a joy to work on, and very hard work. I wanted it to be a praise song for the wild world, and poured as much of myself into it as I could. Much of the reference was within feet of my door. I was painting home and the place I feel most at home. 

Is there a big difference between illustrating another author’s work and illustrating your own? 

There’s a huge difference between working on your own words and those of another. I also write for other illustrators, and really love seeing the results.

At the same time that I was illustrating The Lost Words with Robert I was working on Mrs Noah’s Pockets with James Mayhew and I just loved how James took my words and clothed them so beautifully. Very different books, but they are linked in subtle ways.

Where do your ideas for books come from?

Ideas come from many places. Sometimes from dreaming. I found one book while watching ravens fly, in between their wing beats. Sometimes it can be something overheard. Sometimes it’s a response to something that has happened.

The illustrations we see in childhood books tend to stay with us for life (and can make a big emotional impact when we see them again as adults). What illustrations from your own childhood are strongest or most magical in your memory?

I loved the images in an old copy of The Jungle Book that I used to take out of the library. And later it would have been the images in the Readers Digest AA Book of British Birds [below].

Do you have any particular illustrator heroes or artistic influences? And are there any current illustrators you particularly admire?

I loved Brian Wildsmith, Nicola Bailey, adore Ehsan Abdoullahi who has illustrated The Secret of the Tattered Shoes for me, being published by Tiny Owl right now.

I love old Japanese and Chinese natural history paintings and old scrolls of dragons. I love Sendak and Angela Barrett, Jenni Desmond, Catherine Raynor, Catherine Hyde, James Mayhew, and am loving seeing Nicola Davies find her meet and confidence in image making. 

Tell us about your latest project with Unbound – a new book called The Unwinding and also some new editions of earlier books…

The Unwinding began when I was supposed to be working on the introduction to The House Without Windows. It is a series of paintings bound together with short stories, snatches of words, almost like sequences of dreams [see an example top.]

I’m publishing the book with Unbound, who have been a joy to work with so far. It’s a curious form of publishing that puts the author very much in touch with readers/supporters right from the beginning and it sings a song of tryst between author and reader. You can see more about it, and join us at the Unbound site. 

I’m hoping to finish it very soon, am working on what I think will be the last painting and the first draft of the text this week, in the place where it was born, a small cottage hidden away in Dulverton in Somerset. 

Finally, if you could illustrate a new edition of any children’s book from history, what would you choose?

That is a very hard question. Perhaps it’s one whose answer would often change. 

It’s not a children’s book really. Just a book. But I think, maybe because of where I am at the moment, not far from where it happens, I would chose Tarka the Otter.

You can see more about Jackie on her website and follow her on Twitter and Facebook. The Unwinding will be published by the crowdsourcing publisher Unbound. It’s fully funded but you can still pre-order and choose various rewards including signed editions. Visit the Unbound page here.

More reading: Meet the Illustrator: Chris Mould