Reviewers have said of The Oxford Nursery Book -
"Beck's style has a timeless quality which must surely help make this a modern classic...infant and nursery children will delight in sharing this idyllic childhood world from playtime to slumber time, whether as readers or listeners."
Junior Education
"The pictures are gorgeous, bringing to life a magic childhood world full of beautiful, romantic imagery and sounds and rhythms that nourish the imagination. This is a welcome addition to any library."
Times Educational Supplement
Ian Beck was born in Brighton in 1947. He went to Brighton College of Art and graduated from there in 1968. He started to write and illustrate children’s books after the birth of his first child. Over the years, he has produced a large number of beautifully illustrated children’s books. These include: The Oxford Nursery Book (Oxford University Press), Hush-a-bye Baby (Transworld), Tom and the Island of Dinosaurs (Corgi Children’s Books), Round and Round the Garden (Oxford University Press), Three Little Pigs (Oxford University Press), The Jumblies (Corgi Children’s Books) and Five Little Ducks (Orchard Books).
He is an award-winning illustrator. His book of lullabies, Hush-a-bye Baby (Transworld), won a Distinguished Mention in the 1991 W. H. Smith Illustration Awards, and his illustrations for The Nutcracker (Corgi Children’s Books) were nominated for the 2002 Kate Greenaway Award.
Ian Beck has a talent which is wide-ranging:although he is best-known as an illustrator and author of children’s books, he has also illustrated covers for David Lodge’s and Alice Thomas Ellis’s novels, and produced illustrations for The Radio Times and The Sunday Telegraph. As well as this, he created the wonderfully original illustration for the cover of Elton John’s Yellow Brick Road album.
He is married with three children and lives in Twickenham, Middlesex.
