The illustrator looks at the picture references I sent with my synopsis, as well as ones of his own. They give him ideas for his own pictures. His pictures are first drawn in pencil. My editor sees the pencil drawings, and so do I. If there’s anything we’re not happy with (such as a ninth leg being sneaked onto an octopus, or a Roman gladiator holding a sword in his left hand, which they didn’t) we ask for it to be changed – and because the drawing is in pencil, it’s easy to alter it.

When everyone is happy with the pencil drawings, the illustrator is asked to colour them in. If anything needs to be changed after the pictures are coloured, the illustrator might end up having to make a whole new picture. This is why it’s so important to check the pencil drawings very carefully.

David Antram, the illustrator who drew
the brilliant pictures for 'You Wouldn't
Want To Be A Victorian Schoolchild'.
He is working on one of the pictures
from the book.