Harriet Muncaster - Illustrator

Harriet Muncaster has been drawing, writing and creating things for as long as she can remember. It was while at school that she discovered that being an illustrator and author was a real career path she could take. From that moment on Harriet knew exactly what she wanted to be! She studied illustration at Norwich University of the Arts and then went on to do an MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art. After completing the MA, Harriet’s work was spotted by a publisher at Bologna Children’s book fair and she got her first book deal.

Harriet is inspired by anything magical, fantastical and glittery. She also has a great fascination for miniature things and owns a dollshouse in the shape of a castle.

Harriet is the award-winning author of the best-selling Isadora Moon series, with over 5 million copies sold worldwide and translated into over 27 languages, and counting!

Harriet lives in a village in Bedfordshire with her husband, Henry.

Author Q&A

What inspired you to write the Isadora Moon series?  There is actually quite a bit of history behind Isadora Moon. About ten years ago, on my art foundation course, I created a character called Victoria Stitch and wrote and illustrated a picture book about her. She was a grown up, naughty, slightly gothic, fairy type character and she had a Pink Rabbit who she always dragged around with her. Victoria Stitch became like my alter ego and I always kept her close to me and worked on her in my spare time. Over the years she evolved. She started with pink hair and then she turned even more gothic looking with black, messy hair and with bat wings instead of fairy wings. As my style of illustration changed, she changed too. She is extremely special to me. However, whenever I showed Victoria Stitch to publishers I was always told that she was ‘too mean,’ ‘too naughty,’ ‘too spiky,’ ‘not child friendly.’ Looking back, I can see what they mean. I decided to create a new, separate character who would be more suitable for children but with the black/pink/gothic aesthetics of Victoria Stitch - a younger, friendlier, sweeter version. So Isadora Moon was born! I also gave Isadora Moon fangs (unlike Victoria Stitch) as when I started to think about the backstory for her (why she has batwings, what species is she etc…) it made sense that her mum was a fairy and her dad was a vampire. This is why Isadora Moon is so special to me – because she was born out of a real passion project of mine. I absolutely adore her.

If you had to choose, would you rather be a vampire or a fairy?   I would definitely be a fairy because I love nature. Ideally I would be a miniature fairy, not a human size fairy, because I like the idea of being tiny. Also I would love to have fairy wings and naturally pink hair!