About the Author
Chris Riddell (born 1962 in Cape Town, South Africa; raised in England) is a British author, illustrator, and political cartoonist best known in children's fiction for the Goth Girl Series, the Edge Chronicles (co-written with Paul Stewart), and the Ottoline Series. Riddell's illustration style — intricate, gothic, and immediately recognisable — is as important to his work as his storytelling; his books are notable for the density and quality of their visual art, which functions as a narrative layer equal in importance to the text.
Riddell served as the UK Children's Laureate from 2015 to 2017, using the role to champion illustration and reading for pleasure. He is also one of Britain's most prominent political cartoonists, contributing regularly to The Observer and The Guardian. His illustrated editions of Neil Gaiman's work — including Fortunately, the Milk and The Sleeper and the Spindle — have been particularly celebrated. The Edge Chronicles, co-written with Paul Stewart and illustrated entirely by Riddell, is a thirteen-book fantasy series set in a world of floating rocks and eccentric creatures that has sold millions of copies and is beloved by readers who discovered it as children in the late 1990s and 2000s.