Gemma Raynor was born in Sheffield in 1985 and now lives and works as a freelance children's illustrator from a little bungalow in beautiful Chester.

She studied Illustration for Children's publishing at North Wales Institute of Art and Design and graduated in 2006. She went on to win two awards at the New Designers 06 exhibition in London.

Her passion for children's publishing, the inspiration and support she gained from her degree course, and the publicity and opportunities which arose from the New Designers exhibition meant that finally a dream came true and Gemma had her first book published, 'What's the Time Mr Wolf?' by Meadowside in August 2007.

Since then Gemma had a second book published, 'Toms Tree', with Gullane, along with over 60 greeting cards, and now she is excitedly working on her third picture book.

Gemma greatly admires the work of European artists Lisbeth Zwerger and Anne Betz, and children's illustrator Oliver Jeffers.

Gemma works in mixed media with watercolour, china-graph pencil and coloured pencils, but she likes to experiment with various medias.