Jackie Morris

Jackie Morris (born 1961) is a British writer and illustrator. She was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal 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 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, 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, blackberry and conker. The book was said to be inspired by 21st-century editions of the Oxford Junior Dictionary in which some words like kingfisher associated with nature were omitted in order to include technical terms like attachment, broadband and chatroom. In 2017, Laurence Rose organised a protest letter to the dictionary and it was signed by Margaret Atwood, Sara Maitland, Michael Morpurgo, Andrew Motion, 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 in London, Inverleith House in Edinburgh, Royal Albert Museum in Exeter, and the North York Moors National Park’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, Edith Bowman, Benjamin Zephaniah, and Cerys Matthews, with ambient sound recordings Chris Watson.
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
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 James Mayhew
The Secret of the Tattered Shoes (2019) with Ehsan Abdollahi
The Lost Spells (2020) with Robert Macfarlane
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
Grandmother's Song (2000) by Barbara Soros
New edition of How the Whale Became (1963) by Ted Hughes (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
Singing to the Sun (2008) by Vivian French
Starlight Sailor (2013) by James Mayhew
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
Three Hares 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 Kate Greenaway Medal for The Lost Words
Shortlisted
2016''' Kate Greenaway Medal for Something About a Bear''
References
External links
Official website
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