Books By Mini Grey, Hilaire Belloc - Author

Mini Grey was born in the front seat of a mini in an icy car-park in South Wales. She grew up in a village in Buckinghamshire with plenty of places to make camps, climb trees and pretend to be horses. As a child Mini created many bizarre objects from cardboard, clay, papier mache, dough, plaster, toilet rolls and crisp packets.

At university Mini became involved with set-building at the Bloomsbury theatre and eventually got asked to design some shows. After her degree she worked making latex puppets in a basement in Covent Garden until she was offered a place on a theatre design course. Mini loved theatre designing but she didn't earn much money. She trained to be a teacher and worked for six years in South London. She especially liked running after-school clubs in model-making and pottery.

Mini had always done bits of illustration in her spare time, and had an ambition to have a book published some day. She did a two-year MA in illustration, and made a strange pop-up book and an animation about it.

Mini has had four books published so far; The Pea and The Princess was shortlisted for the Greenaway Award in 2002, and her third book, Biscuit Bear, won the Smarties Prize in 2004.

Mini lives in Oxford with her partner Tony and cat Bonzetta. She likes running along the river, cycling, walking up hills, running down corridors, and playing badly on her electric piano wearing headphones.

Hilaire Belloc was an early 20th Century Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He is most notable for his Roman Catholic faith, which had an impact on most of his writing.