HOPGOOD, Tim 1961-
PERSONAL: Born in England; married; 2 children; 3 grandchildren
Education: Kingston Polytechnic, Illustration degree
Hobbies and other interests: Listening to jazz, soul and funk music, painting, gardening, cooking and dancing.
Favourite colour: Blue, any shade of blue as long as it’s blue!
Favourite insect: Common blue butterfly
Favourite food: Lentils
Favourite tree: Rowan (Mountain Ash)
Favourite season: Autumn
Favourite LP : Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder
Agent - Claire Cartey, Holroyde Cartey Ltd
For all illustration enquiries please contact: claire@holroydecartey.com
To say hello or anything else: hello@timhopgood.org
CAREER: Author and illustrator of children's books. Worked in art department of i-D and Vogue magazines; freelance graphic designer and art director in retail fashion industry for twenty years.
AWARDS:
Cambridgeshire ‘Read It Again!’ Picture Book Award, 2007
BookTrust Early Years Award - Best Emerging Illustrator, 2008
School Library Association Information Book Award, 2016 for Fabulous Frogs written by Martin Jenkins
Kate Greenaway Medal nominations for: Our Big Blue Sofa, Here Comes Frankie, Tip Tap Went the Crab, Big! Thank You for Looking After Our Pets, Singing in the Rain and My Big Book of Outdoors
SELF-ILLUSTRATED PICTURE BOOKS:
Our Big Blue Sofa, Macmillan Children's Books, 2006
A Dog Called Rod, Macmillan Children's Books, 2007
Here Comes Frankie!, Macmillan Children's Books, 2008
Wow! Said the Owl, Macmillan Children's Books, 2009
Tip Tap Went the Crab, Macmillan Children's Books, 2010
Unpoppable, Macmillan Children's Books, 2011
Thank You for Looking After Our Pets, Simon & Schuster, 2011
Ping & Pong are Best Friends (mostly), Simon & Schuster, 2013
Big!, Corgi, Random House Children’s Books, 2013
Little Answer, Corgi, Random House Children’s Books, 2014
Hooray for Hoppy! Macmillan Children's Books, 2014
Walter's Wonderful Web, Macmillan Children's Books, 2016
Doodle Dogs, Macmillan Children's Books, 2017
Wow! It’s Night-Time, Macmillan Children's Books, 2018
Cyril the Lonely Cloud, Oxford University Press, 2019
Wonderful World ABC, Oxford University Press, 2020
My Big Book of Outdoors, Walker Books, 2021
Wonderful World of Colours, Oxford University Press, 2021
Wow! It’s Snowing, Macmillan Children’s Books, 2023
The Happy Hut, Walker Books, 2023
Two Birthdays, A Cedric and Boo Book, Walker Books, 2024
ILLUSTRATOR; CHILDREN'S BOOKS, EXCEPT AS INDICATED:
Less Meat, More Veg (for adults) by Rachel de Thample, Kyle Books, 2011
Twinkle, Twinkle, Squiglet Pig by Joyce Dunbar, Egmont UK, 2013
What a Wonderful World by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss, Oxford University Press, 2014
Fabulous Frogs by Martin Jenkins, Walker Books, 2014
Walking in a Winter Wonderland by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith, Oxford University Press, 2016
River Cottage Love Your Leftovers: Recipes for the Resourceful Cook (for adults) by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016
The Food Lover's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know about Your Favourite Foods (for adults) by Mark Price, Ebury Press, 2016
Singing in the Rain by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, Oxford University Press, 2017
Moon River by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini, Oxford University Press, 2018
What’s Your Favorite Bug? by Eric Carle and Friends, Henry Holt, 2018
Loving Kindness by Deborah Underwood, Henry Holt, 2021
Love, the Earth by Frances Stickley, Walker Books, 2022
Hope Is The Thing with Feathers, Magic Cat Publishing, 2024
Tim Hopgood is an award-winning illustrator and author of books for children including the international best-seller What a Wonderful World, Wonderful World ABC, named a BookTrust Great Book, 2020, the hugely successful Wow! Said the Owl (recently adapted for the stage by Little Angel Theatre, London), and the award-winning Fabulous Frogs written by Martin Jenkins. His books have been translated into over twenty different languages.
Born and raised in England, Hopgood studied graphic design, specialising in illustration, at Kingston Polytechnic and then established a career as a graphic designer. His first job was in the art department at i-D magazine where he was encouraged to handwrite the headings and create collaged page layouts combining photographs with drawings.
During this time he learnt to work in layers and think in colour! It was 1985 and Apple Mac computers were still not in widespread use, so the design team had to imagine what the finished pages were going to look like when they were printed. From there, he moved to Vogue where he learnt how to work to an orderly page grid and to commission illustrations for features.
In 1994, he became a freelance art director and commercial illustrator in the retail fashion industry. Since then Hopgood has put his past design experience to good use creating a range of critically-acclaimed picture books including Here Comes Frankie, for which he received the BookTrust Best Emerging Illustrator award in 2008.
Recently he has combined his love of music with his love of drawing to produce a series of picture books based on classic songs - What a Wonderful World, Walking in a Winter Wonderland, Moon River, and Singing in the Rain which received a starred Kirkus review and was named a Publishers’ Association Best Book of 2017.
2021 sees the publication of Hopgood’s first own non-fiction title My Big Book of Outdoors, a large format gift book which celebrates the wonder of each season (Walker Books, Candlewick Studio) publishing summer 2021 in the UK and spring 2022 in the US. Also due for publication in the US is Loving Kindness (Henry Holt) written by New York Times best-selling author Deborah Underwood.