Vicky Woodgate

Hey there, thanks for stopping by.

So here is a little about me…

l have been drawing since a toddler clutching those crayons close to my heart and scribbling on any surfaces I could get my mitts on. This passion and almost OBSESSION for drawing and creating imaginary worlds lead me to a career in commercial art for twenty five years, how lucky am l!

After graduating from Chelsea College of Art in London, l worked in many different countries on fun interesting jobs in the TV, Film and Theme Park industry, painting huge murals, backdrops and sets. After ten enjoyable years l moved into illustration, working on interesting design, editorial, advertising and publishing projects.

Fast forward to 2016 l signed my first book deal to write and illustrate books for children.

WHAT?

Yep, after mulling over a few ideas and thinking what great fun it must be to create your own book, I did just that. My very first book Urban Jungle for Big Picture Press was all about animals in cities around the world, the idea fully formed after a trip to Athens.

l kept spotting tortoise living in the centre of the city along with scurrying little owls, i’d always had fun spotting wildlife in our most urban of environments - there needed to be a book about that surely? Luckily the folks at Templar - Bonnier Publishing agreed. Next up I signed two more book deals based on my Chiff Chaff studio wildlife range, the first book A World of Birds followed by A World of Dinosaurs, because birds are dinosaurs, right, but luckily for us they don’t roam the countryside anymore.

My new series which l am SUPER proud of is called The Magic of… SLEEP, SEASONS and …. FORESTS! Published by the wonderful DK. Moving into a more narrative non fiction content, Mimi cat is our magic guide throughout the series and based on my own two moggies that shared our lives for nearly eighteen years.

I Can See Nature’s Rainbow a new non-fiction for a younger audience is stuffed with critters and colours and was picked up by Scholastic and published in May 2023.

I am currently working on a new book with Scholastic - publishing in 2026 and I am delighted to say i’ve signed for the first time with Hachette on their Hodder children’s list, a brand new narrative non-fiction, with a new character I can’t wait to unveil. Publishing August 2025.

Many of my books have been translated into different languages including English US, Japanese, German, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Danish, Finnish, Spanish - Europe and South American and Kurdish….

I currently live on the south coast of England with my husband, three recently discovered hedgehogs, two slow worms and a visiting fox.

Vicky X