Main content

Quentin Blake

Kirsty Young's castaway is illustrator Quentin Blake.

Kirsty Young's first castaway is one of our most popular illustrators, Quentin Blake. His work is immediately recognisable and is full of energy, anarchy and joy. An award-winning author in his own right, he is best known for his long collaboration with the author Roald Dahl. In the same way that it is impossible to think of Alice in Wonderland without imagining Tenniel's solemn drawings, when one imagines Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or James and the Giant Peach it is invariably Quentin Blake's pictures that spring to mind.

As a child growing up in the London suburbs he was self-contained, quiet and serious. Family friends remember that he didn't say much - but that he always loved drawing. His cartoons were first published in Punch when he was 16, making him one of its youngest ever contributors, but after graduating from Cambridge and training as a teacher, he decided his future lay not in one-off sketches for magazines, but in book illustration. He was named the first ever Children's Laureate in 1999 and in 2005 was awarded the CBE. He lives in London and continues to work towards the establishment of a museum celebrating the history and techniques of illustration.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: String Quartet No 2 - Intimate Letters by Jan谩cek
Book: Collected Works by Charles Dickens
Luxury: Arches watercolour paper

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 6 Oct 2006 09:00
大象传媒 Radio 4

More episodes

Previous

Dame Joan Plowright

Next

Jane Horrocks

See all episodes from Desert Island Discs

Music Played

  • Castaway's Favourite

    • Leos Jan谩膷ek

      String Quartet No. 2 'Intimate Letters'

      Orchestra: Praz谩k Quartet

      • String Quartets Kreutzer Sonata, Intimate Letters.
      • Praga.

  • Maurice Ravel

    Piano Concerto in G Major

    Soloist: Zolt谩n Kocsis Orchestra: The Budapest Festival Orchestra Conductor: Iv谩n Fischer

    • Debussy/Ravel: The works for Piano & Orchestra.
    • Philips.

  • Alfred Deller

    In Darkness Let Me Dwell

    • HMV Recordings, 1949-1954.
    • EMI.

  • Benjamin Britten

    Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes - Dawn

    Orchestra: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

    • Four Sea Interludes.
    • EMI.

  • Marvin Gaye

    I Heard It Through The Grapevine

    • I Heard It Through the Grapevine.
    • Tamla Motown.

  • Michael Flanders and Donald Swann

    A Song of the Weather

    • At the Drop of a Hat.
    • Parlophone.

  • Anton铆n Dvo艡谩k

    Cello Concerto in B Minor

    Soloist: Pablo Casals Orchestra: The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Georg Szell

    • Dvor谩k: Cello Concerto & Symphony No 9.
    • Dutton Laboratories.

  • Georges Brassens

    Le Parapluie

    • La Mauvaise Reputation.
    • Philips.

  • Book Choice

    • The complete works - Charles Dickens

  • Luxury Choice

    • Arches watercolour paper

Credits

Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Quentin Blake

Broadcasts

  • Sun 1 Oct 2006 11:15
    大象传媒 Radio 4
  • Fri 6 Oct 2006 09:00
    大象传媒 Radio 4

Featured in...

The Desert Island Discs podcast

The Desert Island Discs podcast

Subscribe or download individual episodes.

Listen to over 2,000 programmes

Click above to browse castaways, from 1942 to today.

Articles

Read the surprising things we've learned about some stand-out castaways.

Podcast