Not so long ago…

there was a British boy who lived in a trailer park in the hot New Mexico desert. The boy was colourblind but liked to draw colourful pictures. He also liked to borrow books from his local library with his mum and brothers. In fact, he liked reading books so much that he wanted to be an author and illustrator when he grew up. That boy was me, Steve Antony.


But when I grew up I had many jobs and none of them was an author or illustrator. I worked in a Tesco supermarket. I was a cleaner for the council, and I made fudge but almost set fire to the fudge shop!

Eventually I settled into a call-centre job. But when the call-centre moved to another city, I was faced with a decision. Stay or leave. I decided to leave and with my savings applied for university in Cambridge to study illustration where I created several picture books including Please Mr Panda and The Queen’s Hat.

Now, I have sold over one million books which are in many languages around the world. I even illustrated the Famous Five, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Matilda the Musical picture books! Rainbowsaurus, starring a two-dad family, was voted ‘Best Picture Book of 2024’ by the general public.

I use my platform to champion underrepresented groups and the need for school libraries and public libraries. For example, I illustrate real-life librarians and literacy champions on the front covers of the UK’s School Libraries Association’s magazine and hold regular creative competitions with libraries. The School Libraries Association named me their School Libraries Champion and my local library service named me Swindon Libraries Patron of Chidren’s Reading Services.

I’ve been working as an author and illustrator for over ten years and am currently working on my 31st book at home in Swindon, where I live with my husband and two rescue cats, Lola and Lupo.