Chris Riddell OBE (/rɪdˈɛl/ rid-EL) (born 13 April 1962) is a South African-born English illustrator and occasional writer of children's books and a political cartoonist for the Observer.

He has won three Kate Greenaway Medals – the British librarians' annual award for the best-illustrated children's book,[1][2] and two of his works were commended runners-up, a distinction dropped after 2002.

[5] Chris Riddell was born in 1962 in Cape Town, South Africa, where his father was a "liberal Anglican vicar"[6] and was opposed to the system of apartheid.

The family returned to England when Chris was one year old, where he spent the rest of his childhood with his sister and three brothers, who now live in South Africa, Brighton, and Egypt.

Set in the fictional world known as "The Edge", the books have been praised for Riddell's beautifully detailed line drawings and the unique nature of their collaborative writing process.

[1] The press release called Pirate Diary the first "information book" to win the Medal since 1975 and "a fictionalised account" when he spoke with author Richard Platt the harsh necessities of historical accuracy came into play.

Chris Riddell is the cover artist for the Literary Review magazine formerly edited by Auberon Waugh, a role he took over from the late Willie Rushton.

In November 2017, Riddell publicly accused department store chain John Lewis of plagiarizing elements of his 1986 picture book Mr Underbed for their Christmas advert "Moz the Monster".

The chain defended the allegations, noting that the concept of a monster who lived under a child's bed was a common literary trope, and that both works had dissimilar plots.