The Very Best Hug

Smriti Prasadam-Halls has been a children’s writer and editor for more than ten years and has written several children’s books, including the bestselling Jingle Jangle Jungle, illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Smriti lives in Richmond-upon-Thames.

I grew up in Bangor, Northern Ireland and moved to England for art college in Liverpool, then London. I did a lot of formal studying, and learned a huge amount during that time, but I think my path towards a career in picture books began with my love of comics and cartoons, particularly “Peanuts”, the creation of my hero, the great Charles M. Schulz. ​ Before I became a full-time illustrator and writer, I did many other jobs including teaching English, working in a bookshop and designing Christmas and Halloween signage for supermarkets! ​ I work with publishers in the UK and around the world including Bloomsbury, Simon & Schuster, Little Tiger Press, Oxford University Press and Hinkler. ​ My books have been published in Spanish (Castillian and Catalan), German, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, French, Finnish, Romanian, Afrikaans, Portuguese, Italian and this year, for the first time, in Scots Gaelic, Welsh and Hebrew!