Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler are the writer and illustrator behind some of the best known and most adored picture books of modern times.
 
The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale and The Smartest Giant in Town can be found in millions of homes around the world.

We spoke to both Axel and Julia who offered a fascinating insight into the magic each brings to their incredibly successful partnership.
 
As in many great teams, Julia and Axel are quite different personalities. Julia was raised in London and discovered her love of books when still very young. Then, at the age of five her father gave her The Book of a Thousand Poems. The marriage of language and rhythm by the likes of Keats and Robert Louis Stevenson made a major impact upon her and was to influence much of her own work. Axel, by contrast, was raised in Germany where the notion of a career in 'drawing pictures' was met with considerable cynicism.
 
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