Polly Dunbar is an author and illustrator who's created many much loved books for children. She's one of the most popular illustrators currently working in the UK, in a career spanning three decades.

Polly's best-selling picture book Penguin won a number of awards, amongst them the 2007 Nestlé Silver Award, BookTrust Early Years and Red House awards.

Her Tilly and Friends books went on to become an animated BBC TV series, selling around the world.

Polly Dunbar 's picture books as author illustrator also include gems like A Lion is a Lion, Red Red Red, Something Fishy and Flyaway Katie.

And as an illustrator, Polly has illustrated books by Enid Blyton, Michael Morpurgo, Margaret Mahy and a great number more.

Ready For Spaghetti, a book of funny poems by Michael Rosen, comes out in 2022.

After The Hug, their much-loved reversible book, While We Can't Hug - illustrated by Polly and written by Eoin McLaughlin - helped children understand separation from loved ones. On Christmas Day of 2020, with the UK facing Christmas away from family and friends, a reading aired on the BBC. Now a series, the Hedgehog & Friends books have sold 200,000 copies in the UK and been translated into 23 languages.

In a career focused on books for children, Hello, Mum is Polly's first book for adults. Published by Faber in 2021, it grew out of her spot-on Instagram sketches of motherhood. They are very funny indeed. Hello, Mom comes out in the US in 2022.

Polly is also the co-founder of Long Nose Puppets, an award-winning puppet company. They make and tour adaptations of her books across the UK.

Polly Dunbar lives in Waveny Valley in Suffolk with her partner and their two boys, Sonny and Cody.