Chris Riddell Books

Chris Riddell is the illustrator of many fabulous books, including the works of Neil Gaiman and multiple collections of poetry. He co-created The Edge Chronicles with Paul Stewart and is the author of Goth Girl and Ottoline. Alongside this, he’s the political cartoonist for The Observer. He’s won three Kate Greenaway Medals, three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes, and was appointed as Children’s Laureate 2015-2017.

We have a great selection of Chris Riddell books in stock here at Books2Door. You may also be interested in other Children’s Laureates such as Quentin Blake, Julia Donaldson, and Jacqueline Wilson.

Biography

Chris Riddell was born in 1962 in Cape Town, South Africa, to a vicar and his wife. The family moved back to England when he was one. His mother used to give him a pen and paper to keep him occupied during his dad’s sermons, which eventually led to him studying illustration at Brighton Polytechnic. He was an illustrator for The Economist during the 80s and began working at The Observer in 1995. Riddell now lives in Brighton with his wife and children. He was awarded an OBE in 2019 to recognise his services to illustration and charity.

Best-Known Books

The Edge Chronicles was born from a map drawn by Chris Riddell in 1994. It depicted a fantasy world, all on the edge of a cliff. He challenged Paul Stewart to write a story about it, and four years later, Beyond the Deepwoods was published. The book turned into a trilogy, then a quintet, then a trilogy of trilogies. The series was concluded in 2009 with a supersized tenth book, The Immortals, set hundreds of years later. But the pair couldn’t resist making one final trilogy, which was published between 2014 and 2019, for a total of thirteen books. The first six books, now incorporating two World Book Day novellas initially published alongside the series, are available in The Edge Chronicles 6 Book Collection.

The Ottoline series follows Ottoline Brown, Mistress of Disguise, who lives with her hairy friend Mr Munroe in a city apartment. The pair love puzzles and mysteries and are attendants of the Brown family’s eclectic collections. Across the four-book series, they use their undercover detective skills to unmask the Yellow Cat, expose the ghost at the Alice B. Smith School for the Differently Gifted, get lost at sea, and go on a nighttime safari with a purple fox. These adventures are perfect for children between six and eight to read by themselves and are great bedtime stories for younger ones.

Ada Goth, the only lonely child of Lord Goth, lives in Ghastly-Gorm Hall. When William and Emily Cabbage and their ghostly mouse Ishmael come to stay, they begin to unravel gamekeeper Maltravers’ dastardly plot. So begins Chris Riddell’s Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse, winner of the Costa Children’s Book Award. In the series that follows, Ada’s adventures take her to a Fete Worse Than Death, a Wuthering Fright at Lord Goth’s literary dog show, and a Sinister Symphony at Ghastly-Gorm Hall music festival.