James Mayhew

James John Mayhew (born 1964 in Stamford, Lincolnshire) is an English illustrator and author of children's books, storyteller, artist and concert presenter/live art performer.

They include the Ella Bella Ballerina series, Once Upon A Tune, Miranda the Castaway, Boy, illustrations for the Mouse and Mole books (animated for BBC television, with the voices of Alan Bennett, Richard Briers and Imelda Staunton), Gaspard the Fox series (by Zeb Soanes), Nen and the Lonely Fisherman (by Ian Eagleton), Koshka's Tales (a collection of Russian Folk stories), Can you see a Little Bear?

Mayhew has had books published in Japan, China, Korea, Germany, France, Greece, Estonia, Spain, Catalonia, Scandinavia, Russia, Turkey, the US, and other countries.

[10] In 1994 he received The New York Times Award for one of the ten best illustrated books of the year for The Boy and the Cloth of Dreams, written by Jenny Koralek.

[11] In 2011 Mayhew was the first illustrator selected to appear on the BBC's Authors Live series for Scottish Book Trust.

In 2022 Nen and the Lonely Fisherman (by Ian Eagleton) was awarded the inaugural Children's and YA Polari Prize for LGBTQ+ books, in a ceremony at the British Library.

They have included Peter and the Wolf, The Firebird, Swan Lake, Pictures at an Exhibition, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, The Planets, William Tell and Scheherazade.

In 2013 he designed sets and costumes for a production of the opera Noye's Fludde in Tewkesbury Abbey, to celebrate Benjamin Britten's centenary year, and as part of his role as the Guest Director of the 2013 Cheltenham Music Festival.

[14] In February 2017, the composer Bernard Hughes adapted Mayhew's The Knight Who Took All Day as a concert work for orchestra and narrator.

Later that month, he departed from his usual classical concerts to join the singer-songwriter Tanita Tikaram at the Barbican Centre in London.