Korky Paul

Korky Paul was born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1951. He studied art at the Durban School of Art in Natal, South Africa and then spent three years working for an advertising agency in Cape Town. In 1976 as Korky puts it he "fled for Europe" and got a job illustrating and designing educational books in Greece.

He then spent some time working for an advertising agency in London and Los Angeles and then studied film animation at Cal Arts in California. Korky Paul had his first children's book published in the USA in 1980. It was a pop up book called The Crocodile and Dumper Truck. During the 1980's Korky illustrated a number of children's books and in 1986 he illustrated his first book for Oxford University Press, Winnie the Witch, which won the Children's Book Award in 1987.

Korky has since illustrated more very successful books for Oxford, including The Fish Who Could Wish in 1991, Dragons, Dinosaurs and Monster poems and Winnie in Winter, in 1996. September 1999 saw the publication of the third Winnie book, Winnie Flies Again and the launch of the Fish Who Could Wish and Winnie titles in a big book format.

Several of Korky's picture books have now been adapted for CD-ROM, including Winnie the Witch and The Fish Who Could Wish, which won the coveted EMMA Award in 1995.

Korky Paul has very quickly become a well known figure in the children's book world and he is especially popular with the young children who read his books and are carried away into a fantasy world by the illustrations.

Korky Paul is married with two children. He works in Oxford but spends four months of the year living it up in Greece.