Julian Williams is one of the founding directors of Two Bad Mice Publishers Ltd.
Links to see more Julian Williams Artwork
Julian is married to a Japanese ballet dancer: Mami Usami-Williams. They live in Pembrokeshire, West Wales.
Fran grew up in Pembrokeshire with her sister and two brothers. However she recalls spending hours alone in the garden observing snails, insects and tadpoles; she wanted to share their small world. When she was 4 she won a Blue Peter badge in a drawing competition. This, along with her encouraging and creative primary school teacher planted a little seed in her head; she wanted to be an artist. Fran can’t remember ‘not drawing’. She copied Norman Thelwell’s drawings of children on chubby ponies – she started working at a local riding stables at the age of 10 in return for riding lessons, which broadened her understanding of drawing horses.
Fran moved from Pembrokeshire to Llanelli when she was 15 and after ‘A’ levels did a foundation course in Art &Design in Carmarthen. For a while she veered towards ceramics, model-making appealed, but decided it was illustration she wanted to specialise in and went to Exeter to complete a BA in Graphic Design. Here she discovered the work of Arthur Rackham, Brian Froud and Alan Lee, a small stepping stone in developing her own style. Before graduating, representatives from a tile manufacturing company spotted her work. She worked for 6 months designing tiles, whilst living in Cornwall and travelled to Australia. She travelled the country, worked as a crew-member on a whale-watching tall ship, with dressage horses and cared for orphaned wallabies.
On her return to the U.K, she worked on a reserve for the West Wales Wildlife Trust, in a cafe on site, designing interpretation, posters and running children’s workshops. Before becoming a full-time illustrator, Fran worked in a whole-food shop, South American Cafe, as a hotel cleaner, card packer, and as a scenic artist near Chepstow where she learned to make polystyrene walls look ‘old and weathered’. She sold her own hand made cards for a while before approaching her favourite card company whom she had discovered whilst studying in Exeter, ‘Two Bad Mice’ Publishers, then based in London – now in Pembrokeshire. Initially her work was rejected but persistence prevailed and she now produces images for cards, ceramics and wrapping paper; which are distributed worldwide.
A commission for a poster from the Welsh Books Council resulted in her first picture book with Gomer Press in West Wales. She has also been commissioned by Andre Deutsch and Piccadilly Press in London, Templar in Surrey, Scottish Natural Heritage and Forestry Commission, A.Vogel in Ireland, and has had work commissioned from Tasmania. She has written and illustrated several childrens books. Fran occasionally works in schools where she talks about her books and provides illustration workshops.
Fran returned to live in Pembrokeshire in 1999 and lives with her partner, two sons and two dogs near the Cleddau Estuary.
Links for Alison Friend
Lisa D’Andrea is an award-winning illustrator who lives and works in Padua. She spent her childhood in northern Italy and has devoted herself to drawing and painting ever since. After graduating from college in the humanities, she went to the International School of Comics of Padua. Since 2015, her work has been selected for many awards and exhibitions. In 2016 she took part in the travelling collective exhibition for the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Books illustrated by Lisa
Two Bad Mice Page Links
I was born in a sunny city in Eastern Europe. A lot of my childhood I spent at the backstage of the family puppet theatre where I used to grow up with the puppets and sets of each new performance. I would make stories about the characters that were different from the plot of the plays. At first I was shorter than the puppets, then finally got taller. It’s probably when it started – I see a personal story in each object or creature and this I convey in my illustrations and texts.
Back home I was surrounded by my dad’s paints and pictures. I used to play with sketchbooks, which I continually filled with my crayons, page after page of big smiling suns with thick hairs of colourful rays.
In a sense my art hasn’t changed that much – the world I create is bright and happy, my characters who are often animals are friendly and naïve, they sometimes live in a human-like environment and have human-like thoughts and dreams. My pictures are detailed and have many ‘mini-stories’ to discover, one can look and imagine what the characters are like and what their dreams are. I also like to explore a world of animal – human relationships. I like to create pictures and stories that are ageless, that would be interesting and amusing and at the same time valid for the children and also the adults. I have an interest in using traditional painting / drawing materials such as watercolour and gouache or pen and ink but also work on Photoshop to maximize my work’s finish.
I spent the summers in a remote mountainous village in Bulgaria. We didn’t have a TV or internet there and I played in the mud near the river. My dad used to bring home frogs, lizards or turtles for me to play with; sometimes snakes (the snakes he put in empty glass bottles). My first ever sentence was ‘My dad brought me a frog, lizard and one more frog’.
Growing up with no brothers or sisters I shared my childhood and my nursery with a cat and a dog – we were only apart when I went to school. I used to draw them all the time and study their characters and behaviour. Very young I managed to sell some of these drawings and donated all the money to a homeless animals charity. I love all animals and if I hadn’t become an artist, I probably would have been a vet.
I went to school in Sofia where I studied at the National School for Fine Art where I studied for five years and was trained in classical techniques and subjects. After that I continued my art education and gained a BA in Fine & Art and Mural Painting from the National Academy of Arts in 2008. I now live in England and since moving here have been working on children’s book illustrations and also on greetings cards for Two Bad Mice.
One of my most favourite things are puddles (of which you get a lot in England) – maybe this is quite understandable having in mind I spent a lot of time playing in muddy ponds. I love watching them, I love to discover the landscape in them and study the different point of view, I like to jump over them and to watch how people react when they meet them. But I’m still in love with the sun and the warm weather and weather and time permitting I try to do some gardening – being an amateur gardener though I often end up tending for a plant that is not quite the one I thought it was. I like to find seeds and plant them to see what will grow from them.
My working table is never big enough (even when I buy a new larger one) and is covered in sketches, paints, pencils, books, dry leaves and all sorts, but there’s always room for another cup of tea – for a friend.
Two Bad Mice Pages
(Guess How Much I Love You Gifts)
Anita was born in 1965 and brought up in Portsmouth. After leaving school she worked at a factory, shop and at a kennel. Her early ambition was to work with animals but she soon realised that without more academic qualifications it would be difficult to advance her career. In 1986 she married Andrew Jeram whom she had known from her school days and was then living in Manchester where he was studying palaeontology and the physiology of fossil scorpions.
Anita had always loved making drawing of animals. Her husband would come across these drawings around the house. One day, after finding a particularly lovely picture of a kitten in the kitchen, he urged her to take her talent more seriously. This conversation led her to apply to join an Art and Illustration course at Manchester Polytechnic. Her tutor on the course was David Hughes, an illustrator, who took the promising work of his pupil to Walker Books who shortly afterwards offered her a contract. Her first book, Bill’s Belly Button, was published in 1991 a year after she graduated.
Anita has written and illustrated her own books as well as worked with other children’s authors (see list below). Anita’s most famous illustrations are the ones she has done for the best selling classic Guess How Much I Love You written by Sam McBratney which has sold 28 million copies and been translated into 53 different languages.
The directors of Two Bad Mice discovered the illustrations for Guess How Much I Love You in a bookshop in Islington, a few months later Anita started working with Two Bad Mice (1996). At Two Bad Mice she established a reputation and big fan following for her witty cards (to date 20 million cards have been sold in many countries across the world). More recently Anita has designed ranges of ceramics and gift products.
Anita’s original works are sold through The Illustration Cupboard, Children’s Book Illustration and Francis Iles Gallery. The success of Guess never went to her head, she lives a quiet private life with her husband and three children and many animals near the coast. She does not accept private commissions because she is already very busy and wants more time to enjoy with her family.
Biography of Anita Jeram – Books
Bill’s Belly Button (1991)
It Was Jake (1991)
The Most Obedient Dog in the World (1993)
All Pigs are Beautiful (by Dick King-Smith 1993)
My Hen is Dancing (by Karen Wallace 1993)
I Love Guinea Pigs (by Dick King-Smith 1994)
Guess How Much I Love You (by Sam McBratney 1994)
Contrary Mary (1995)
Daisy Dare (1995)
Puppy Love (by Dick King-Smith 1997)
Animal Friends ( by Dick King-Smith 1997)
Birthday Happy Contrary Mary (1998)
Bunny, My Honey (1999)
All Together Now (1999)
In Every Tiny Grain of Sand (contributed illustrations 2000)
Kiss Goodnight, Sam (by Amy Hest 2001)
Don’t You Feel Well, Sam ( by Amy Hest 2001)
I Love My Little Storybook (2002)
You Can Do It, Sam (by Amy Hest 2003)
You’re All My Favourites (by Sam McBratney 2004)
The Little Nutbrown Hare stories (by Sam McBratney 2007)
Little Chick (2009 by Amy Hest)
Perhaps once in every generation an artist will stamp their personality on to a children’s book. In the 1990’s that book was “Guess How Much I Love you” by Sam McBratney which is as with much loved for its illustrations as its words.
Many of our greatest Children’s Classics have been born as a collaboration between writer and illustrator. When we think of Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll 1865) we always imagine John Tenniel’s illustrations of the little girl with flowing blond hair:
Original study for Alice 1864 from Houghton Library
When we think of Beatrix Potter’s books images of Peter Rabbit, Mrs Tiggywinkle and Jemima Puddle Duck come flowing into our minds
We cannot imagine Wind in the Willows (by Kenneth Grahame1908) without simultaneously remembering E H Shepard’s pictures of Toad
Toad of Toad Hall by E H Shepard 1908
If we think of Winnie the Pooh (by A A Milne 1926) we again think of E H Shepard’s illustrations
Pooh and Piglet by E H Shepard 1926
Peggy Fortnum has cemented her images of Paddington bear on to Michael Bond’s words
‘A Bear Called Paddington’ illustration Peggy Fortnum 1958
and when we think of Guess How Much I Love You by Sam MacBratney we immediately conjure up Anita Jeram’s pictures of The Little Nut Brown Hare with his dad. The book is already a classic that children who grew up in the 1990s are now sharing with their own children.
In many peoples’ mind Anita’s illustrations and Two Bad Mice cards are inseparable. We have sold about 25 million of Anita’s cards across the world since we started working with Anita in 1994. Most Greeting Cards have a shelf life of five years or less before they are discontinued and become the forgotten Ephemera of our pasts. Anita’s cards have broken that rule, for instance Cloud Watching which was released in 1997, is still a best seller in 2019.
Cloud Watching by Anita Jeram 1997
Anita has reworked her original ideas to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this card. In 2018 a whole range of Cloud Watching products; stationery, notebooks, paper pads, even umbrellas were released by Bekking and Blitz (Holland).
Anita’s work for Two Bad Mice has a different emphasis from the work she does for Walker Books her children’s book publishers. When Anita paints for Two Bad Mice she always has an adult audience at the forefront of her mind. Her jokes and images catch the attention of all age groups.
Twice a year we ask her for new ideas for cards. A few days later a package will arrive with perhaps ten sheets of closely packed illustrations with titles. These sheets are always a joy to receive and the number of ideas so prolific that we have trouble choosing which ones to use.
Sometimes, when we later come back to these pages, we find new jokes we did not notice first time round. Perhaps it is just our memory could not hold on to so many ideas all arriving at once.
Anita also makes illustrations for ceramics, like this one for a small mug called Fruit Tea.
Anita’s works are often well composed very pretty.
and when she wants it her work is elegant
But Anita’s primary interest does not seem to be centred on colour, composition, elegance or even humour. What makes her work different and interesting is the nuanced psychology that always embellishes her pictures with added meaning. In this picture the cat attention and thoughts are very clearly explained, what is extraordinary is the bird’s eye, which even though it is half hidden behind the wire of the cage seems to let us know what is going on inside the birds head too. This level of expression is very rare in illustrators.
We have only met Anita a few times, and we have always discovered her to be shy and quiet. At first she seems a different person from the one we see coming forward in her artwork, she is definitely humble. Suddenly she will make a quip that mirrors the humour and focus that is in her picture. Her pictures reflect her personality exactly, it is just that you cannot see her meekness in them.
Recently Anita has kindly embarked with us on a series of big projects expanding the range of products in new areas of interest. We have been working on bowls, linen, new mug shapes and tiles for Kitchen’s and Bathrooms.
Anita Jeram Cards : https://shop.twobadmice.com/product-category/cards-and-stationery/greetings-cards/anita-jeram/
Anita Jeram Ceramics: https://shop.twobadmice.com/product-category/bone-china/anita-jeram-mugs/
