Oliver Jeffers

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	Photo: © Christopher Heaney

Biography

Oliver Jeffers was born in Western Australia in 1977, and brought up in Belfast. He is an artist who began by exhibiting his work at several small exhibitions in Belfast from 1995-1998, before beginning to illustrate book jackets for local publishing houses. He graduated from the University of Ulster with a degree in Visual Communications in 2001.

From 1999 to 2000, he travelled to Australia and the US, settling in Sydney and becoming a freelance illustrator and painter, working for various magazines, and illustrating for the Lavazza Coffee Company.

The first picture book he wrote and illustrated was How To Catch A Star (2004), which was shortlisted for the 2004 Booktrust Early Years Award (Best New Illustrator). Lost and Found (2005) won the 2005 Nestlé Children's Book Prize (Gold Award) in 2005, the 2006 Blue Peter Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal. The Incredible Book Eating Boy (2006), was shortlisted for the 2007 British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year. 

Oliver Jeffers continues to exhibit his work in London, Ireland, Australia and the US, and has undertaken illustration commissions for various organisations, including Starbuck's, Orange, and Sony PSP. He is also a co-founder of the art collaborative, OAR.

His latest book is The Great Paper Caper (2008). In 2008, Lost and Found was made into an animation which was screened on Channel 4, and later won a BAFTA Children's Award for Best Animation.

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Genres (in alphabetical order)

Children, Illustration

Bibliography

How To Catch A Star   Collins, 2004

Lost and Found   HarperCollins, 2005

The Incredible Book Eating Boy   HarperCollins, 2006

The Way Back Home   HarperCollins, 2007

The Great Paper Caper   HarperCollins, 2008

Read about books by Oliver Jeffers at encompassculture.com - the British Council's book database and global online book club

Buy books by Oliver Jeffers at Amazon.co.uk

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Prizes and awards

2004   Booktrust Early Years Award (Best New Illustrator)   (shortlist)   How To Catch A Star

2005   Bisto Prize (Ireland)   (merit)   How To Catch A Star

2005   Kate Greenaway Medal   (shortlist)   Lost and Found

2005   Nestlé Children's Book Prize (Gold Award)   (5 years and under category)   Lost and Found

2006   Blue Peter Book of the Year Award   Lost and Found

2006   Booktrust Early Years Award (Pre-School Award)   (shortlist)   Lost and Found

2007   British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year   (shortlist)   The Incredible Book Eating Boy

2008   Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children's Book of the Year   (shortlist)   The Way Back Home

2008   Roald Dahl Funny Prize   (6 years and under category - shortlist)   The Great Paper Caper

2009   Bisto Book of the Year Award   (shortlist)   The Great Paper Caper

2009   Kate Greenaway Medal   (shortlist)   The Way Back Home

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Author statement

Oliver Jeffers’ practice as an artist is concerned with the difference between things, the space between perceived absolutes. For the last several years Oliver has been interested in the gulf that exists between logical thinking and emotional understanding. His interest in figurative painting stems from its non-objective process: the decisions the artist makes in representing the subject effect how it is viewed.

His interest in mathematics stems from its objective process: mathematics strives to explain using universal terminology. His interest in combining mathematics and art comes from the idea that mathematical language can explain the formal aspect of a subject, the same aspect that painting interprets as beauty.

That changed the day he met Dr Hugh Morrison, a Quantum Physicist from Queen's University, in conversations they shared about the relationship between traditional figurative painting, human behaviour and mathematics, Jeffers came to realise philosophical similarities shared by either enterprise.

He continues to cross examine emotion and logic.

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Contact information

Publisher (General enquiries) HarperCollins Publishers 77-85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith London  W6 8JB England Tel: +44 (0)20 8741 7070 Fax: +44 (0)020 8307 4440 http://www.harpercollins.co.uk

Agent The Bell Lomax Agency James House 1 Babmaes Street London  SW1Y 6HF England Tel: +44 (0)20 7930 4447 Fax: +44 (0)20 7925 0118 E-mail: agency@bell-lomax.co.uk

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Related links

http:/ / www.oliverjeffers.com

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