Nick Butterworth (born 24 May 1946) is a British author and illustrator of children's books. His

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The ima ...

''The Whisperer'' won the

Nestlé Smarties Book Prize The Nestlé Children's Book Prize, and Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for a time, was a set of annual awards for British children's books that ran from 1985 to 2007. It was administered by BookTrust, an independent charity that promotes books and r ...

in 2005. His '' Percy the Park Keeper'' books became an animated television series of the same name starring

Jim Broadbent James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972, he came to prominence as a character actor for his many roles in film and television. He has received various accolades ...

. His '' Q Pootle 5'' books were adapted by the BBC and broadcast on

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content targeted for children aged six year ...

, the channel for young children, in 2013. In the 1980s, he was a presenter on ITV children's programme ''

Rub-a-Dub-Tub ''Rub-a-Dub-Tub'' was a children's television series broadcast in the United Kingdom on the breakfast television channel TV-am between 1983 and 1984. In addition to the main regular presenters, the programme also featured appearances by some of ...

''.

Early life

Born on 24 May 1946 in

Kingsbury Kingsbury may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Kingsbury, London, a district of northwest London in the borough of Brent ** Kingsbury tube station, London Underground station * Kingsbury, Warwickshire, a village and civil parish in Warwickshi ...

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames and the City of London. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshi ...

, from the age of 2, Butterworth grew up in a sweet shop in

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

. After his education at the

Royal Liberty School The Royal Liberty School is a secondary school for boys aged 11 to 16, located in Gidea Park in the London Borough of Havering, England. The school is situated on Upper Brentwood Road about 400 metres north of Gidea Park railway station, and ...

Gidea Park Gidea Park () is a neighbourhood in the east of Romford in the London Borough of Havering, south-east England. Predominantly an affluent and residential area, it was historically located in the county of Essex. It saw significant expansion in t ...

, Butterworth left home to work as an apprentice typographical designer with the National Children's Home before working at Crosby Fletcher Forbes (the forerunner of design agency

Pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle around ...

Career

Butterworth became a freelance graphic designer in the late 1960s. This led to a partnership with long-standing friend and children's writer and illustrator

Mick Inkpen Mick Inkpen (born 22 December 1952) is a British author and illustrator. He is best known for his creations Kipper the Dog and Wibbly Pig. Background Inkpen was born on 22 December 1952 in Romford, Essex, England. He was educated at Roya ...

. Their published collaborations include ''Just Like Jasper'', ''Jasper's Beanstalk'', ''The Sports Day'', ''The Nativity Play'', and ''Wonderful Earth''. In 1983 and 1984, in the early days of breakfast television in the UK, he appeared as a regular presenter on '' Good Morning Britain'', illustrating and telling stories on air in a children's segment called ''

''. His works as sole author illustrator include several books featuring the character Percy the Park Keeper, the first of which, ''One Snowy Night'', was published in 1989. Believed to have been inspired by a park warden who worked at Raphael Park in Romford, a statue of the character was installed in the same park in 2013. The books were re-released in 2019 for the 30th anniversary of publication. The Percy book ''After the Storm'' has been adapted for the theatre. Percy also appeared in his own animated television series in the late 1990s, '' Percy the Park Keeper'', with

voicing the eponymous character. According to publisher Harper Collins in 2019, global sales of the books reached nine million copies. Butterworth has written and illustrated a number of other children's books, including ''Thud!'' (1997) and ''Albert le Blanc'' (2002), which 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 2002. ''The Whisperer'', published in 2004, is written from the perspective of a voyeuristic rat in mean city streets and is darker than many of Butterworth's books. Described as a feline West Side Story, it won the Nestle Smarties Prize in 2005. It is dedicated to

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

. His '' Q Pootle 5'' books are written for young children and feature a space-dweller whose friends include Oopsy, Planet Dave and Tiger. Butterworth is a founding partner, with his son Ben, of Snapper Productions, producers of the

animated series ''Q Pootle 5''. He is the executive producer of the series.

Personal life

Butterworth lives in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

with his wife Annette. They have been married since 1975 and have two adult children.

References

External links

Snapper Films
(official home page) {{DEFAULTSORT:Butterworth, Nic. 1946 births Living people British children's writers British illustrators People educated at the Royal Liberty Grammar School People from Kingsbury, London People from Romford Writers from the London Borough of Brent Writers from the London Borough of Havering