Joel Stewart was born in Barnsley and grew up in Sheffield after spending his earliest years in a commune somewhere in the wilds.

He obtained a first class honours degree in illustration from Falmouth College of Arts in Cornwall and was already working on his first picture book, The Adventures of a Nose, before he graduated.

He knows how to play several musical instruments (including the ukulele) and draws pictures every single day (except on very rare occasions when he really, really doesn't feel like it).

Titles illustrated by Joel Stewart include Dexter Bexley & the Big Blue Beastie, Me & My Mammoth, When a Zeeder Met a Xyder, Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, Tales of Hans Christian Andersen and Underwater Farmyard.