The Illustrator Behind the Gruffalo

Along with only a handful of other characters from modern children’s literature, the “Gruffalo” has made it into the pantheon of classic fairy-tale figures. Night after night, children around the world enjoy the same triumphal scene while listening to their bedtime story: a clever little mouse fools them all by inventing a terrifying friend to scare off its enemies. All of a sudden, however, the monster turns out to be real after all – yet even this beast with his “terrible tusks and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws” is outsmarted by the shrewd mouse.

This children’s book, which tells the story of the Gruffalo and the mouse in rhyme, has been an overwhelming success for more than ten years. Illustrated by Axel Scheffler and written by the British author Julia Donaldson, it has been translated into 26 languages and has sold well over five million copies in English alone, while more than 750,000 copies of the German version have been printed.

This success has made stars out of Alex Scheffler and Julia Donaldson, his congenial co-author. Children and adults around the world love their stories; there is even an Oscar-nominated film version of “The Gruffalo”.

Only relatively few people know the friendly and reserved artist behind the Gruffalo, however. Even though he remained in England after completing his studies there 30 years ago, he still retains traces of his Hamburg accent – the city where he was born. Now 55 years old, he lives with his family in London and has published an impressive canon of works.

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