My Name is Not Refugee

About Kate Milner

Kate Milner studied Illustration at Central St Martin's before completing the MA in Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University. Her work has been published in magazines and her illustrations and prints have been shown in London galleries and national touring exhibitions. Kate won the V&A Student Illustration Award in 2016.

On winning the Klaus Flugge Prize 2018, Kate Milner said: “I felt absolutely amazed and delighted when I heard that I’d won. I was very, very pleased to be shortlisted but I explained to everyone at the time that there was absolutely no chance of me winning. I was quite clear about this. When I got the good news I was alone in the house apart from my son who was still asleep. I was beside myself with delight; he didn’t get to stay asleep long.

I have done all sorts of things in my working life. I have painted pub signs and made prints; been a teacher and a carer. I have always made images and thought up stories, but it was a job at the local library that changed everything for me: I fell in love with children’s books. Part of my job was to read to groups of pre-school children at Rhyme Time, which was an excellent way of discovering which books kept their attention, indeed which books kept my attention. I also helped with Chatterbooks and the Summer Reading Challenge, both of which involved talking to children about books. It was an education. We wondered why picture books contain lots of farm yard animals but no mobile phones, yet most children know all about mobile phones and have never met a lamb. We discussed whether Moody Margaret would beat My Naughty Little Sister in a fight, and we decided she definitely would. Despite my great age, I am, in many ways, about eight years old, and I still love to draw and make up stories. Becoming part of the world of children’s book feels like coming home.”