Doodle bug
The dyslexic author winning over reluctant readers
‘I saw if I wanted to illustrate the sort of books I like, I’d have to write them, too’
In the Brighton home of children’s author Liz Pichon, her quirky trademark doodlestyle illustrations furnish almost every other surface – including the 52-year-old Pichon herself. From her wedge shoes to earrings, nail transfers to mugs and crockery, Pichon’s signature style is everywhere. Even the cake on the table has a carefully designed, cheery wobble of black icing squiggled across it.
For parents, these doodles will be instantly familiar, as they call to mind Pichon’s award-winning Tom Gates children’s books. For those new to Pichon’s work, the Tom Gates series is a British publishing sensation. Having started life in 2011 with The Brilliant World of Tom Gates, there are now 10 books charting the life and times of Tom, an endearing but chaotic young boy (aged about 10), his mother and father, sister Delia and best friend Marcus. In five years, the books have sold more than four million copies worldwide and been translated into 42 languages.
In the same satirical realist genre as the popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise, the Tom Gates books are not just guaranteed to enthral a young reader on a summer holiday afternoon. They are also perfect for children who need a bit more encouragement than average – whether that might be due to a diagnosed condition such as dyslexia or because they just can’t sit still.
All the Gates books – the latest, Super Good Skills (Almost), is set during school holidays – contain space for doodling and games, plus places to comment and useful advice (like how to trick your sister into thinking you haven’t eaten the last Caramel Wafer). These books are as actively engaging as possible. No wonder teachers, parents and children love them.
Perhaps Tom chimes so well with young readers who don’t find reading easy because Pichon herself has dyslexia. Pichon’s eldest son, Zac (25), is also dyslexic, but it was her own childhood that inspired the stories and format of the books.
“I didn’t know I was dyslexic at school, but I remember being a year behind,” says Pichon, who is married to Mark, 50, a music lecturer, and also has two daughters, Ella, 21, and Lily, 17. “I was enthusiastic and quite bright, but that never translated into academic work. In primary school I remember there being a times tables quiz every Wednesday and we couldn’t go home until we had answered the questions correctly. I’d be sick, flustered and panicking – my maths teacher was terrifying and used to throw chalk at people.”
School was a state primary in Kentish Town, north London. “It was a swanky area in parts, although my parents were sitting tenants who never bought their home. But I loved it there: we were in walking distance of Parliament Hill and close to Camden Lock. I’d go swimming at the Hampstead ponds. Despite school, I had a fantastic childhood, encouraged to be creative by my mother.”
A turning point for Pichon was when an American friend of her mother’s sent a humorous book called The Bad Speller. “My work had always been covered in red pen, but that cheered me up. It wasn’t that I didn’t like books. I loved them – I just took longer to read than anyone else.”
Pichon went to Camberwell School of Art to study graphic design for a BA, and became entranced by illustration. “At the time, I didn’t have a style. I was flitting from thing to thing. But what ran through all my work was humour.”
After graduation, she took on a variety of jobs – her father used to circle jobs in the newspaper and leave them on the table for Pichon to find – before landing a role as junior designer at Jive records in Willesden. It sounds like she was living the Eighties dream – clients included Sam Fox, Ruby Turner and Billy Ocean, who was “lovely”. She had incredible creative freedom, designing record sleeves and art directing shoots. She also met Mark, who was a record engineer at the time.
Pichon admits that dyslexia can easily erode your confidence. “There are gaping holes in my education,” she says. “But I have a go at anything. And the more you do, the more you feel you can have another go. Not everything works out, but I can look back now and see that I was putting together pieces of the jigsaw which represents where I am now.”
After marrying Mark in 1990, she became pregnant, and worked through early motherhood, freelancing for the Purple Ronnie creator Giles Andreae, creating greetings cards.
“One day, I put Zac down in the corner of the room while we had a meeting, and suddenly he cried. Giles looked up, and said: ‘What’s that noise? Oh, you’ve got a baby, Lizzie.’ We just got on with it.”
Later she freelanced for Camden Graphics, before beginning to illustrate other people’s books. But after moving to Brighton, and exhausted by a long stint on Enid Blyton Bible Stories, Pichon thought: “I can’t draw any more beards and sandals. If I want to illustrate the sort of books I like, I will have to write them, too.”
In 2004, My Big Brother, Boris – only her second book – won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize Silver Award. But quietly gestating away was Tom Gates. And so in 2010, she submitted the idea by filling in an exercise book as though Tom had written it, complete with watersmudged ink and ripped-off pages where Tom noted the “dog had eaten my homework”.
She explains: “I doodled about bands and wrote in jokes. My favourite TV programmes as a child were Banana Splits and Here Come the Double Deckers, and I wanted to get that feeling of variety. To put in what I would have liked to read about if I was that age.”
Seven publishers offered for the manuscript and in the end, Pichon walked away with a three-book deal, and a determination to have fun.
“I was still worried I’d be hopeless at spelling,” she admits. “But I just treated every page as though it was a piece of artwork.” Even her handwriting was turned into a font. Now that doodling style finds its way on to all manner of objects. Shoes became a canvas when Pichon realised that was often what children – seated on the floor at a story-telling session – would see most.
Pichon admits that she could never have planned to create a series like Tom Gates. “I just kept thinking, if I was that age, what would I have liked to read?
“When you think back to your own childhood, it’s worth remembering your memories aren’t childish. They are of things that were very important to you. That’s what I draw from.”