Sir Quentin Saxby Blake (born 16 December 1932) is an English cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator and children's writer.
In the sixth form, the school's art teacher, the painter Stanley Simmonds, recognized Blake's talents and provided support and exposure to the work of other artists.
[11] During the 1960s, Blake taught English at the Lycée Français de Londres which cemented his long association with France and culminated in the award of the Legion of Honour.
[12] In his subsequent career, Blake gained a reputation as a loyal, reliable and humorous illustrator of more than 300 children's books, including some written by Joan Aiken, Elizabeth Bowen, Sylvia Plath, Roald Dahl, Nils-Olof Franzén, William Steig, and Dr. Seuss.
In the 1970s, Blake was an occasional presenter of the BBC children's storytelling programme Jackanory, when he would illustrate the stories on a canvas as he was telling them.
[19] In 2007, Blake designed a huge mural on fabric, suspended over and thus disguising a ramshackle building immediately opposite an entrance to St Pancras railway station.
Blake was the inaugural British Children's Laureate (1999–2001)[3] and was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2001.
[31] He received the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award from the International Board on Books for Young People for his career contribution to children's literature in 2002.
[32] For Mister Magnolia, which he also wrote, Blake won the 1980 Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject.
[28] For the 50th anniversary of the Medal (1955–2005), a panel of experts named it one of the top ten winning works, which composed the ballot for a public election of the nation's favourite.
The award from Maschler Publications and Booktrust annually recognised one British "work of imagination for children, in which text and illustration are integrated so that each enhances and balances the other.
[35] In March 2014, he was awarded the insignia of a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur at a ceremony at the Institut Français in London.