Lauren Child grew up in Marlborough, Wiltshire. She is the middle of three sisters and both her parents are teachers. She went to Art School in Manchester and London and has had a variety of jobs from waitressing to designing exotic, elegant lampshades and working as an artist's assistant to Damien Hirst. \nLauren Child is probably THE most talented, funny and individual picture book author/illustrator today. She burst on to the children's book scene in 1999 with two picture books, I Want a Pet and Clarice Bean - That's Me. Her fresh and funny books were an instant hit. In 2000 Lauren won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato and in 2002 That Pesky Rat won the Gold Smarties Award. Lauren also published her first novel in the same year, Utterly Me, Clarice Bean, which was a runaway success and has been sold in ten foreign editions. A second novel, Clarice Bean Spells Trouble was published in 2004. \nQuentin Blake selected Lauren for inclusion in the Magic Pencil Exhibition (British Library), a gathering of the very best of current British children's illustrators, including Tony Ross, Angela Barrett and Raymond Briggs.