Mick Manning
As a child
I grew up in Haworth, West Yorkshire. Whenever I could, I would go out on the moor to be near the wild, whooping, flapping things that lived there: curlews, lapwings, snipe and short-eared owls. I drew and wrote about them at junior school, and my favourite books were What to Look for in Autumn illustrated by C. E. Tunnicliffe and Stig of the Dump by Clive King.
As an adult
When I left school, I wanted to carry on drawing animals. I did a degree in graphics at Newcastle and, later, an MA in Natural History Illustration at the Royal College of Art in London. My first book was called A Ruined House. Now I live by the sea with my partner, Brita Granström, and our three sons. We spend a lot of time on the beaches and sand dunes, walking, drawing and cooking sausages.
As an artist
I have written and illustrated over forty books, many of them are about the natural world. I work with my partner, Brita Granström, and we have won the Silver Smarties TES Award, the Rhone Poulene Science runner-up prize (three times), and the English Award. We live on the coast, and I get my best ideas when I’m out walking beside the sea, listening to the curlews and redshanks.
Things you didn't know about Mick Manning
- I was born on a full moon!
- When I was eight, I played a shepherd boy in the BBC2 costume drama Wuthering Heights.
- I once got so close to a weasel, it climbed on my Doc Martin boot for a closer look!
- My favourite birds are owls and Swedish ospreys.
- My great-granddad (x 5) was called Boniface Musso, and taught painting and sword fighting in eighteenth-century Newcastle.
- I cook a nice curry.
- My ambition is to meet a wild wolf.
- I love conker trees and finding conkers.
- I used to have ferrets when I was a student.
- I’d like some more ferrets.