Mini Grey
Visiting Writer
Profile
Mini Grey was born in a mini car in a car park in South Wales. She worked as a theatre designer, then a primary school teacher, before studying for an MA in sequential design at Brighton University.
Mini’s first picture book for children, Egg Drop, a surreal story of an egg that dreams of being able to fly, was published in 2002. It established her as both a visually exciting illustrator of detailed, colourful artwork and a highly accomplished storyteller, who often narrates from an unusual, often edible, point of view, such as that of the pea in The Pea and the Princess (2003) the biscuit in Biscuit Bear (2004)—winner of Nestlé Smarties Gold—and the spoon in The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon (winner of Greenaway Award 2007).
Traction Man is Here (2005) won the 2005 Boston Horn Book Award. Mini’s version of Hilaire Belloc’s cautionary tale of Jim (who runs away from his nurse and gets eaten by a lion) was shortlisted for the Greenaway Awards 2011. Mini was selected as one of Booktrust’s Best New Illustrators in 2008.
Recent books include Hermelin, the story of a typing mouse detective, and Space Dog, an intergalactic canine/feline romp set in the Outer Spooniverse. Mini’s latest publication is The Bad Bunnies’ Magic Show.