Dozy Mare

Jeanne Willis was born in St Albans and trained as an advertising copywriter at Watford College. She worked for various agencies creating press adverts and TV, cinema and radio commercials. She is now a full-time writer. Jeanne Willis is one of the most successful children’s picture book authors in the UK. She wrote her first book aged five - a slim volume about cats and stitchd together with a painfullly blunt needle so that it looked like a 'real' book. After that, there was no turning back. Having been fired from her Saturday job selling cowboy boots in the Kings Road for chewing gum, and after a brief career as a reptile vet's assistant, she worked as a copywirter and had her first picture book published at the age of 21 (which she wrote whilst pretending to be busy creating adverts for cognac) and has now written over eighty titles. She has won numerous awards, including the Children's Book Award, the Silver Smarties Prize and has been shortlisted for the Whitbread Award. She has written Who’s in the Loo? which won the Red House Children’s Book Award. Her hobbies include gardening, reading (nonfiction), natural history and collecting caterpillars. Jeanne has also worked on scripts for TV, including Polly Pocket and The Slow Norris, and a pilot TV series for Dr Xargle. She lives in North London with her husband and two children.

Photo credit: Justine Stoddart

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