In addition to his numerous children's books, he is also known for his cover illustration on Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album.

[5] He produced his first novel The Secret History of Tom Trueheart, Boy Adventurer, which was published on 1 June 2006; subsequent editions appeared in more than twenty languages.

[7] He has written three other novels, Pastworld (Bloomsbury, 2009), The Hidden Kingdom (Oxford University Press, 2011), and The Haunting of Charity Delafield (Bodley Head, 2011).

[8] In 2012, Beck created a set of drawings of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Little Tich for a hospital ward in Harrow, Middlesex, under the auspices of the charity The Nightingale Project.

[9] Beck has produced further drawings in this series, depicting other stars of music hall and early cinema, for a public exhibition entitled The Limelight Pictures that ran from February to June 2013.