With more than 400 images, most in full colour and many never seen before, this book showcases the incredible talents of this much-loved children's writer and illustrator. Beginning with his own storybook childhood in England, we see how his imagination and artistic talents were fed by his family's love of music, literature and nature; how his life was further inspired and enriched by travel, by his teachers, by his older brother, who shared his love of inventing, by his friends and mentors in the publishing, music and film industries, and by his artist wife and their three children. From the earliest drawings, pop-up cards and home-made board games, through his surrealist years as a teenager and rock musician, and through a quarter century of published books, we learn of the artists, musicians, writers and humorists who have inspired him, and witness the development of his own particular brand of genius.