Mary Murphy - Illustrator

As a child, Mary Murphy was a constant reader. Her favourite books included Mary Poppins, Peter Pan and Tom’s Midnight Garden. She also loved any stories about animals. Mary was the third of six children.

Mary lives in Galway, Ireland, and describes herself as "fairly outdoorish, but not sporty". She loves walking, swimming, reading and cycling. Mary studied Illustration and Design in Dublin before freelancing as an illustrator. She has always written for pleasure, and soon began developing ideas for children’s books following the antics of characters she had already visualised. A technique she sometimes uses is to draw the character in different situations, and then see what follows on from there.