Despite her hectic schedule, Lauren took a moment to answer some questions…

1) What was your favourite children’s book/comic when you were young?

My heart belonged to Roald Dahl who I desperately wished was an extra granddad and wanted to be when I grew up. The Witches was my favourite. I still get shivers thinking of the Grand High Witch standing under my window scratching under her wig with her long fingernails.

I used to be able to take eight books out from the library each week. I always got the full eight (and borrowed from my sis if could). I remember tottering along under a huge pile smelling that book smell and impatient to get home and start reading.

2) What is your favourite children’s book/comic now?

Without a doubt Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. I would live in those books if I could. I long to ride an armoured bear under the northern lights across the icy wastes wrapped snuggly in reeking furs to keep warm.

Others I love are Phillip Reeves Mortal Engines books, Snoopy (that beagle is my Yoda), the Harry Potter series, Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart books and some bloke’s Mousehunter Trilogy. Can’t remember his name. There really are too many to mention though. I own more kids books than grown up books and I’m quite happy with that balance.

3) Are books better if they have pictures?

I love imaging worlds and people when I read books, but I also love pictures. My illustrated Never-ending Story is one of my favourite books in the world. Pictures are what makes a special book that bit more magic.

4) Are you going to make a knitting book?

I am! Much to my surprise. I have a graffiti knitting book out in March called Knit the City. It’s out in German with the lovely Hoffmann and Campe but I’m hoping a UK publisher will snap it up soon. I also have a top secret knitting book out next Autumn and I have a few ideas for some woolly-themed books for urchins too. Watch this space.

5) What was the last thing you knit?

I’ve recently knitted an 8-metre giant squid out of carrier bags for the Natural History Museum, a mini Phillip Schofield with a mini Gordon the Gopher which I gave to him on This Morning, and a herd of knitting graffiti sheep that crossed London Bridge for Wool Week with my Knit the City crew. I don’t think I’ve ever knitted a jumper though. There’s no time!

1) What was your favourite children’s book/comic when you were young?

Robin: I never really had one favourite. From the ages of 7-11 I pretty much read everything I could get my hands on. I’d regularly spend my pocket money on comics including Battle, Commando, Action Force, the Beano and the Dandy. We lived opposite a library so I’d be over there most days rooting through exciting books, like the Willard Price ‘Adventure’ series, and the Hardy Boys novels. Later I discovered fantasy and ravenously consumed Tolkien and Terry Pratchett’s back catalogue.

Lorenzo: I really got hooked on great comics from an early age as our Grandfather used to give us old French copies of Asterix. I’d read them (well look at the pictures!) over and over again, just gazing at the pages. I also had a subscription to the Beano for about ten years!

2) What is your favourite children’s book/comic now?

Robin: If I’m being biased I’d say the DFC library books! The wealth of talent at work, from Dave Shelton’s Good Dog Bad Good, to Ben Haggarty and Adam Brockbank’s Mezolith is simply fantastic. My other favourite recent children’s book is the stupendously excellent The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis. It’s a beautifully illustrated and skilfully told action science romp!

Lorenzo: I’m pretty much addicted to comic books from mainland Europe (largely due to my early prolonged immersion with the Asterix series. Recently I’ve been blown away by a four book tale entitled Ring Circus. But there’s so much new material being produced in France, Spain and Italy that it’s hard to keep up with all the great stuff available!

3) Are books better if they have pictures?

Robin: Yes. No. Er. Pass. Well, actually I DO read grownup books without pictures (sometimes) and they’re excellent in their own right but there is something magical about the synergy between art and word. So I guess that’s a yes then.
Lorenzo: Yes.

4) If you weren’t a writer/illustrator, what would you be?

Robin: Circus Strongman
Lorenzo: Adventurer

5) What’s the best thing about your comics?

Robin: They are FUN! We’ve never created anything that’s failed to make us chuckle, or whoop from the sheer fun of throwing everything we’ve got at the page. Our stories are cram-packed with madness and action and the art is pretty mind-blowingly awesome (I’m allowed to say that as that’s Lorenzo’s role!).
Lorenzo: I think the best thing is probably that we take our time to create original worlds that would be amazing to visit … if they were only real! We’re big fans of books, comics, movies and games where you really feel as if you could step round any corner and discover MORE!

And to find out a little bit more about them, watch this video of their launch part for Monkey Nuts!

1) What was your favourite children’s book/comic when you were young?

When I was young I loved Whizzer and Chips – two comics in one. One for me and one for my sister. I can’t remember who had which, but we’d always swap. When I was a teenager I bought every edition of Action! A comic so violent it was eventually banned.

My favourite book is trickier. Lots – The Narnia ones, Five Children and It, Charlotte’s Web, Professor Branestawm, The Catweazle books. Then, when I was 15 I read The Shining by Stephen King and couldn’t get to sleep at nights.

2) What is your favourite children’s book/comic now?

Now… I’ve stopped reading comics, though I did collect all of Hellraiser – the graphic novels of stories by Clive Barker. I’ve just read The Princess Bride by William Goldman and it is fantastic. Now one of my top books ever. All parents should read it to their children.

3) Are books better if they have pictures?

Some books yes. I’m currently reading Moby Dick by Herman Melville (no pictures). I know there are illustrated editions available and in this case I think I would like that even though it would make the book 7563 pages long.

4) If you weren’t a writer/illustrator, what would you be?

If I wasn’t a writer I don’t know what I’d be. I’m pretty good at catsitting for people when they go on holiday… so, yes, I’d be a catsitter.

5) What’s the best thing about your books?

I’ve written one and a bit books. One was a daft joke book- Trev and Simon’s Stupid Book (the best thing about that, probably, is that it is out of print… not really, it’s great). And I co-wrote a story for the Jackanory 25th Anniversary book yonks ago.

Thanks for your time Simon!

I can tell you now that we’re already overwhelmed with brilliant monsters, and I really don’t know how I’m going to whittle down the 400 entries to a mere 100. Yikes!

1) What was your favourite children’s book when you were young?

Hmm, when I was very young it would have been a toss up between Rip Van Winkle (illustrated by Arthur Rackham) and the Tim and the Hidden People books (by Sheila K McCullagh), and then as I got a bit older I got really into Robert Westall. I particularly liked the Devil on the Road. And LOTR has got to have a mention too, really. But if it’s just one book over all, it’s probably Where the Wild Things Are.

2) What is your favourite children’s book now?

I’m not sure really, my son loves Oliver Jeffers’ Lost and Found, and after having read it MANY times, I’m still not bored of it, so that’s got to be a good thing!

3) Are books better if they have pictures?

Well, I’m not sure, are pictures better if they have words? Slightly facetious answer I know, but I think that each medium stands equally well on it’s own or combined; it just becomes something that you interact with in a different way. So I guess my final answer would probably be ‘no’ (Unless of course you want to pay me lots of money to illustrate your book, in which case the answer is a resounding ‘yes’.)

4) If you weren’t a writer/illustrator, what would you be?

Bored.

5) What’s the best thing about your work?

The sheer Tom Percival-ness of them. In each book I also use a brand new colour that I have invented especially for that title. If you can spot one in Tobias, let me know and you’ll win a special prize!

Here’s the splendid cover of his new picture book:

And if any of you wanted to know anything else about Tom, here’s a short biography of the man himself:

Tom Percival grew up in a remote and beautiful part of South Shropshire (or in a ramshackle and freezing-cold caravan, depending on how nostalgic he is feeling). He now lives in Bristol in a far more conventional building (a house), with his girlfriend and their young son.

Tom has produced covers and internal illustrations for the Skulduggery Pleasant series of books as well as for titles by Anthony Horowitz, Pete Johnson and Alexadro Adornetto.

Tom’s debut picture book, Tobias and the Super Spooky Ghost Book, is to be published by Harper Collins in October 2010. His second picture book, A home for Mr Tipps, is due for release in August 2011.

Tom is currently working on a selection of picture books, animation concepts and a young fiction title.

Thanks Tom!

Events taking place at the Bookseller Crow Bookshop are listed here. All these events at the book shop are free and unticketed, so come along and experience the best that Children’s books has to offer.

To find out more about the authors and illustrators taking part, follow these links: Steve Feasey, Alexander Gordon Smith, Sam Enthoven, Alex Bell, Laura Dockrill, Tom Percival, Alex Milway, Ilya, Sarwat Chadda, Garen Ewing, The Etherington Brothers, Gary Northfield, Viviane Schwarz, Lerryn Korda, Karen Wall and Jim Helmore, Guy Bass, CT Furlong, Sarah McIntyre and Jon Mayhew.

1) What was your favourite children’s book/comic when you were young?

I was an avid Asterix fan and still have my battered copies from when I was 6 or 7. I remember sitting in the school playground reading Asterix and the Big Fight, being astonished at the beautiful artwork. I’ll never forget the excitement of going to the big Jarrolds department store in Norwich on a Saturday to buy a new Asterix book, flipping through the spinning rack trying to figure out which one to spend my pennies on. Happy days!

2) What is your favourite children’s book/comic now?

Mammoth Academy by Neal Layton. It’s aimed at 8 year olds, but still makes me laugh like an idiot. Mad scribbly drawings, stupid dialogue and nutty characters. Perfect. Someone asked me to have a go at writing a chapter book, which I will soon, and Mammoth Academy is my blueprint for success!

3) Are books better if they have pictures?

I love books with pictures, but that’s not to say they’re better. One of my favourite books is The Hobbit and beautiful words can easily take you to a world without the need for pictures and it lets your imagination do all the work. On the other hand I think comics need to be a good balance of words and pictures. Comics that are over-wordy with reams of paragraphs I find really off-putting and pretentious.

4) If you weren’t a writer/illustrator, what would you be?

I’m addicted to finding stuff out about the universe or history, so either an astronomer or archaeologist. Probably archaeologist, as the maths involved in astronomy goes right over my head. I keep right up with all the latest astronomical finds though and I’m particularly excited about planets and their moons. I love dinosaurs and would love to go digging for dino bones one day. (plug : I have a new book about jolly dinosaurs coming out in about 18 months time-ish! Woohooo!)

5) What’s the best thing about your books/comics?

My comics are stupid and energetic. sometimes surreal, sometimes simple. Occasionally poignant, but always funny. *Puts ego back in box*

Thanks Gary for your time!

1) What was your favourite children’s book/comic when you were young?

I used to love this book called No Change, Please about this entrepreneur kid who goes on a summer camp trip, and comes up with all these crazy but workable moneymaking schemes behind his camp counsellor’s back. It’s out of print now and I can’t remember who wrote it; when I tried to order it over the internet, I got a totally different book, full of old Wild West printed posters and brochures (also cool, but not the same). I also loved a book called The Runaway Robot by Lester del Rey. In picture books, I loved In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak and my favourite comics were Calvin and Hobbes.

2) What is your favourite children’s book/comic now?

I still think Calvin and Hobbes’ Bill Watterson is the ultimate comics genius, but I’ve also come to love Posy Simmonds, both for her adult comics and some of the comic things she does in children’s books such as Lavender. I think Viviane Schwarz’s picture book There are Cats in this Book is pretty amazing.

3) Are books better if they have pictures?

I like both kinds of books, they just work very differently. It’s like asking if I think going to the cinema is better than going to a music concert; they’re two totally different things and I can appreciate them each in their own right.

4) If you weren’t a writer/illustrator, what would you be?

I once applied for a job as a rigger on a masted ship. I thought it would be fun to sail old ships for a living. I once met a guy named Dave Floyd who had done his degree in astronomy at university, and got to work as a ship’s astronomer on a ship just like the one James Cook sailed on during his voyage of exploration to Australia and New Zealand in the 1700’s. I later bought a book about the voyage (filmed by the BBC) and saw that a woman aboard had the job of being ship’s botanist. So every time they docked, she’d go on to the land, find unusual native plants, take them back to the ship and draw them. I thought, that is a perfect job.

5) What’s the best thing about your books/comics?

I think I’m good at coming up with characters people can relate to. I love getting into their world and trying to see thing like they would see them. With my comic book Vern and Lettuce, Vern the sheep is very much based on my husband’s personality and Lettuce the rabbit is a bit more like me. They all live in a tower block in the city, that’s not that much unlike my neighbourhood. So when I put the characters together, it’s almost like I’m overhearing them talk, it’s very natural.

With Morris the Mankiest Monster, I got to tap into my disgusting side and have loads of fun making things look absolutely foul, but also picking up on Morris’s delight with being dirty and smelly and revolting. Putting all the labels on the disgusting jars in his kitchen was so much fun!

You can come and meet Sarah in The Bookseller Crow on the morning of Saturday, 23 October. For more details check the festival line-up here.

Here are some of her books:

As you can probably see, Kate’s drawn us a particularly impressive, and rather trendily dressed Goblin. We think it’s amazing! Thanks Kate!