I went along to the London Book Fair last month to see the three children's books that I've been illustrating.
This collection of picture books reimagines classic Chinese fables to share the values and resilience of the Chinese spirit with children globally.
We joined in with The Big Plastic Count this year and it was a really good way to actually see how much plastic we use over a week.
We got a 'plastic footprint' after submitting our results;
In one week we used 101 bits of plastic.
Over a year that's equivalent to 5,252 pieces of plastic.
If all households were the same as ours, the UK would use 147,581,200,000 bits of plastic every year.
I drew most of the buildings on Broadway High Street for an illustrated map - almost 100 illustrations were supplied in black and white to Cotswold Web Design Agency, Riley and Thomas, and they have created the finished a2 sized map which was coloured up with a key.
This is the folded handout version...
I've been creating personalised cards and gifts for many years now, and some designs are just instant favourites - like this 'more than' bag. I really love it!
The 100 day project is such a great way to build creative practice inside real lives with busy schedules! Doing it, makes you, make art everyday!
Even though ideally I would just naturally make art everyday (because I do love doing it), it doesn't tend to happen unless I have a reason and for me the 100 day project works as that reason. I'm only doing it on weekdays this year to ease the pressure and every week day I'm creating - and most days it is fun! I'm making characters based on British wildlife. This badger cub is called Marco...
On radio 2 a few weeks ago, they were talking about following your talents not your dreams, highlighted by actress and producer Reese Witherspoon in February 2026. She argues that chasing talents is more effective than chasing dreams, noting that while "everyone has dreams," they do not guarantee success. Instead, she advises focusing on what you are uniquely good at.
This year's event had the theme of resilience, and it was a brilliant day, as always, for small business owners.
I loved taking part in this book cover challenge (you can take part annually in early December) - the first book title to illustrate was 'Daisy Sweetapple Lives Next Door' (I accidentally put lived instead of lives!) I'm always super busy with orders in December, so I had to be very quick with these illustration ideas in my sketchbook - but I actually found it a good way to end the day, before falling asleep!!
I then made an idea of how the artwork could work on a book cover...
I went to David Hockney's Bigger & Closer exhibition in the summer and hatched a grand plan to go to more art exhibitions! It was so good!
