Pam Smy

Pam Smy ran a children’s library, worked in a specialist children’s bookshop, and was a trade book buyer before becoming an illustrator and writer and a lecturer on the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art. 

With a love of the countryside and the natural world from an early age, Pam’s illustration is focused on place and the relationship between characters and their environment. She develops this through a combination of drawing from life and creating imaginary spaces and places in her sketchbooks. 

She has illustrated books for Linda Newbery, John Agard, Julia Donaldson, Siobhan Dowd, Penelope Lively and Lucy Strange. Pam’s first novel, Thornhill, was shortlisted for the CILIP Greenaway Prize and the Waterstones Prize. Her second novel, The Hideaway, was published in 2021.