Catchpole Agency

Jane McGuinness is a Scottish illustrator and author who specialises in picture books. Wildlife and nature, songs and stories have always filled Jane's imagination. After a BA Illustration at the University for the Creative Arts in Kent, Jane also graduated from Cambridge School of Art's MA in Children's Book Illustration. She was subsequently awarded the Sebastian Walker Prize. Say Hi to Hedgehogs! is Jane's first book as author and illustrator, with Walker. Jane's animals are always captivating, especially her wildlife. And the hoglets in this book are especially memorable. Published as Prickly Hedgehogs by Candlewick in North America, it received an Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Honor and an International Literacy Association Primary Nonfiction Honor. She followed her hedgehogs with some beautiful work with The Woodland Trust and Kew Gardens, illustrating Into the Forest by Christiane Dorian and A Kew Children's Guide by Catherine Brereton. Both published by Bloomsbury. In another woodland story, Jane illustrated Timothy Knapman's What's Next? with Walker - about a small badger and his father. In 2021, Jane illustrated two books about wildlife by Martin Jenkins. Find Out About Animal Babies and Find Out About Animal Homes are gentle, appealing non-fiction guides for young children, also published by Walker. Jane McGuinness spent her childhood absorbing a heady mix of Scottish folk songs, books about Narnia and Farthing Wood. She is looking forward to tangling herself up in words and pictures for the foreseeable future.