Jackie Morris (born 1961) is a British

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

. She was shortlisted for the

Kate Greenaway Medal The Carnegie Medal for Illustration (until 2022 the Kate Greenaway Medal) is a British award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Librar ...

in 2016 and won it in 2019 for her illustration of ''The Lost Words'', voted the most beautiful book of 2016 by UK booksellers. She is a recipient of the Tir na n-Og Award for children's book ''Seal Children''.

Life

Morris was born in Birmingham in 1961. Her family moved to

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, England, Worceste ...

when she was four. As a child she was told that she couldn't be an artist, but despite this she learned to paint. Morris went to High school at Prince Henry's High School in Evesham and afterward the Bath Academy of Art. On leaving college she found work in editorial, illustrating magazines like Radio Times, New Statesman, New Society and Country Living. She worked for years illustrating books and in 2016, she was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal for ''Something About a Bear''. The book includes her water colours of different types of bear. She lives in a small house by the sea in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, painting and writing.

Career

''The Lost Words'' is a book of "spells" by Robert Macfarlane with illustrations by Morris. The book has clues to words like ''

acorn The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...

'', ''

blackberry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

'' and '' conker''. The book was inspired by 21st-century editions of the '' Oxford Junior Dictionary'' in which some words like ''

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species living in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

'' associated with nature were omitted in order to include technical terms like '' attachment'', ''

broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...

'' and ''

chatroom The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...

''. In 2017, Laurence Rose organised a protest letter to the dictionary and it was signed by

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...

Sara Maitland Sara Maitland (born 27 February 1950) is a British writer of religious fantasy. A novelist, she is also known for her short stories. Her work has a magic realist tendency. Life and career Sarah (later "Sara") Louise MaitlandGenealogies of Kent ...

Michael Morpurgo Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo ('' né'' Bridge; 5 October 1943) is an English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist who is known best for children's novels such as '' War Horse'' (1982). His work is noted for its "magical storytelli ...

Andrew Motion Sir Andrew Peter Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and a ...

, Macfarlane, and Morris. Much debate ensued but the creative outcome was an idea for joint work by McFarlane and Morris. This book was voted the most beautiful book by UK booksellers in 2016. An exhibition of ''The Lost Words'' was held at Compton Verney in 2017, featuring immersive floor to ceiling graphics of the poems and illustrations in the book. The exhibition subsequently toured Britain, hosted by the

Foundling Museum The Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square, London, tells the story of the Foundling Hospital, Britain's first home for children at risk of abandonment. The museum houses the nationally important Foundling Hospital Collection as well as the Geral ...

in London,

Inverleith House Inverleith House is a historic house, now within the Royal Botanic Garden, in the suburb of Inverleith, in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Inverleith House was designed in 1773 by David Henderson and built for James Rocheid in 1774. In about 182 ...

in Edinburgh, Royal Albert Museum in Exeter, and the

North York Moors National Park North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

’s art gallery in Danby. A Welsh language version of ''The Lost Words'' '''Geiriau Diflanedig was published by Graffeg in 2019 with author Mererid Hopwood adapting Macfarlane's acrostic spell-poems within Morris' illustrations. An audiobook of ''The Lost Words'' has been narrated by

Guy Garvey Guy Edward John Patrick Garvey (born 6 March 1974) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and radio presenter. He is the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Elbow. He has a weekly show on BBC Radio 6 Music titled ''Guy Garvey's Fines ...

, Edith Bowman,

Benjamin Zephaniah Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (15 April 1958 – 7 December 2023) was a British writer, dub poet, actor, musician and professor of poetry and creative writing. Over his lifetime, he was awarded 20 honorary doctorates in recognition of his c ...

, and

Cerys Matthews Cerys Elizabeth Matthews (; born 11 April 1969) is a Welsh singer, songwriter, author, and broadcaster. She was a founding member of Welsh rock band Catatonia and a leading figure in the " Cool Cymru" movement of the late 1990s. Matthews now ...

, with ambient sound recordings

Chris Watson John Christian Watson (born Johan Cristian Tanck; 9 April 186718 November 1941) was an Australian politician who served as the third prime minister of Australia from April to August 1904. He held office as the inaugural federal leader of the Au ...

Works

;As author and illustrator * ''Cities in the Sea'' (1996) with Sian Lewis * ''The Seal Children'' (2004) * ''Can You See a Little Bear'' (2005) with

James Mayhew James John Mayhew (born 1964 in Stamford, Lincolnshire) is an English illustrator and author of children's books, storyteller, artist and concert presenter/live art performer. Early life and education The son of RAF pilot John Byrne Mayhew and ...

* Compilation and illustration of ''The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems'' (2006) * ''The Snow Leopard'' (2007) * ''Tell Me a Dragon'' (2009) * ''The Ice Bear'' (2010) * ''The Cat and the Fiddle: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes'' (2011) * ''Queen of the Sky'' (2011) * ''I am Cat'' (2012) * ''Song of the Golden Hare'' (2013) * ''East of the Sun, West of the Moon'' (2013) * Words of ''Little Evie in the Wild Wood'' (2013) illustrated by Catherine Hyde * ''Something About a Bear'' (2014) * ''The Wild Swans'' (2015) * ''Cat Walk'' (2015) * ''The Quiet Music of Gently Falling Snow'' (2016) * ''The While Fox'' (2016) * ''The Lost Words'' (2017) with Robert Macfarlane * Words of ''Mrs Noah's Pockets'' (2018) illustrated by

* ''The Secret of the Tattered Shoes'' (2019) with Ehsan Abdollahi * ''The Lost Spells'' (2020) with Robert Macfarlane * Words of ''Mrs Noah's Garden'' (2020) illustrated by

* Words of ''Mrs Noah's Song'' (2022) illustrated by

;As illustrator * ''The Snow Whale'' (1996) by Caroline Pitcher * ''Out of the Ark: Stories from the World's Religions'' (1996) by Anita Ganeri * ''The Time of the Lion'' (1998) by Caroline Pitcher * ''The Fourth Wise Man'' (1998) by Susan Summers * ''Stories from the Stars: Greek Myths of the Zodiac'' (1998) by Juliet Sharman-Burke * ''Lord of the Dance'' (1998) by

Sydney Carter Sydney Bertram Carter (6 May 1915 – 13 March 2004) was an English poet, songwriter, and folk musician who was born in Camden Town, London. He is best known for the song " Lord of the Dance" (1963), whose music is based on the Shaker song "Sim ...

* ''Grandmother's Song'' (2000) by Barbara Soros * New edition of ''How the Whale Became'' (1963) by

Ted Hughes Edward James Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He wa ...

(2000) * ''Marianna and the Merchild'' (2000) by Caroline Pitcher * ''Parables: Stories Jesus Told'' (2000) by Mary Hoffman * ''Animals of the Bible'' (2003) by Mary Hoffman * ''Lord of the Forest'' (2004) by Caroline Pitcher * ''Little One, We Knew You'd Come'' (2006) by

Sally Lloyd-Jones Sally Lloyd-Jones is a British children's book writer. Background Lloyd-Jones was born in Kampala, Uganda and studied Art History with French at University of Sussex and Paris-Sorbonne University. She is not related to the famous minister Mar ...

* ''Singing to the Sun'' (2008) by Vivian French * ''Starlight Sailor'' (2013) by

* ''Walking on Water: Miracles Jesus Worked'' (2017) by Mary Hoffman * ''Lost and Found: Parables Jesus Told'' (2017) by Mary Hoffman ;Notable artwork * Cover art for many books by

Robin Hobb Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden (; born March 5, 1952), known by her pen names Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, is an American writer of speculative fiction. As Hobb, she is best known for her fantasy novels set in the ''Realm of the Elderlings'', ...

* ''

Three Hares The three hares (or three rabbits) is a circular motif appearing in sacred sites from China , the Middle East and the churches and synagogues of Europe, in particular those of Devon, England (as the " Tinners' Rabbits"), . It is used as an ar ...

'' print * Judy Dyble's album, '' Talking with Strangers'', featured her art for its second pressing

Awards and recognitions

;Awards * 1997 Tir na n-O Award for ''Cities in the Sea'' * 2005 Tir na n-O Award for ''The Seal Children'' * 2017 Books Are My Bag Readers' Award for ''The Lost Words'' * 2019

for ''The Lost Words'' ;Shortlisted * 2016

for ''Something About a Bear''

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Jackie 1961 births Living people Alumni of Bath School of Art and Design Artists from Birmingham, West Midlands British children's writers British illustrators British children's book illustrators British women children's book illustrators Kate Greenaway Medal winners