Pieńkowski was also twice the UK nominee – in 1982 and 2008 – for the international Hans Christian Andersen award, the highest recognition available to creators of children’s books. After leaving university Pieńkowski founded the Gallery Five greeting cards company. He began illustrating children's bo Jan Michel Pieńkowski is a Polish-born British illustrator and author of children's books. He is probably best known for his Meg and Mog books with writer Helen Nicoll and for his pop-up books, including Haunted House (winner of the 1980 Kate Greenaway Medal), Robot, Dinner Time, Good Night and seventeen others. The British author Ed Vere, who is godson to Walser, said: “Jan Pieńkowski lived an inspiring life dedicated to making books of the very highest standard – pioneering, intelligent, beautifully considered, and always created with a mischievous sense of fun.”

In October 2009, Pieńkowski was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. During the programme he discussed his childhood spent roaming Europe, his dead infant sister, his bipolarity and his collection of discarded garments (which he would wear himself or give away to charity shops). [6] In 1969, Pieńkowski designed a trophy for the Booker Prize, which was unveiled at the first prize ceremony that year, with the statuette being awarded to P. H. Newby. [16] Although the statuette was out of use for many years, after Pieńkowski's death it was reinstated in his honour and was awarded to the winner of the Booker Prize 2022, Shehan Karunatilaka. [17] Books [ edit ] a b (Greenaway Winner 1971). Living Archive: Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners. CILIP. Retrieved 15 July 2012. Khomami, Nadia (20 February 2022). "Jan Pieńkowski, illustrator of Meg and Mog books, dies at 85". The Guardian . Retrieved 20 February 2022.Pieńkowski said in an interview that the series gave him the opportunity to turn monsters from his childhood into harmless toys. He took his palette from comic strips such as Desperate Dan and Dennis the Menace. The children’s author and illustrator Shoo Rayner added: “Sad news – Jan Pieńkowski was an inspiration to me when I was starting out.” He won the Kate Greenaway award in 1971 with the writer Joan Aiken for their second collaboration, The Kingdom Under the Sea, which was comprised of eastern European fairytales. He won his second Greenaway award in 1979 for the scary pop-up book Haunted House, which demonstrated his tendency towards the gothic. Meg and Mog, completed in collaboration with the late writer Helen Nicoll, was a series of illustrated adventures about a hapless witch and her stripy cat. Pienkowski’s family fled when the Russians came, and after working their way across Europe they arrived in England in 1946, eventually settling in Herefordshire. Jan attended the Cardinal Vaughan School in London and, despite knowing no English when he arrived in the country, later read English and Classics at King’s College, Cambridge.

In 1968, Pieńkowski began working with children's author Joan Aiken. He won the annual Kate Greenaway Medal for their 1971 book, The Kingdom Under the Sea and other stories ( Jonathan Cape), eleven "fairy tales from Eastern Europe and Russia" retold by Aiken. [7] That award by the Library Association recognised the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. In retrospect the librarians call it "brilliantly illustrated in a highly original and recognisable silhouette style". [7] One year earlier he had been one of three Greenaway runners up for The Golden Bird ( J. M. Dent, 1970), written by Edith Brill. [8] [a] After leaving university Pieńkowski founded the Gallery Five greeting cards company. He began illustrating children's books in his spare time, but soon found the work taking over all his time. He began working with children's author Joan Aiken in 1968; he later won the first of two Kate Greenaway Medals in 1972 for his illustrations for Aiken's The Kingdom Under the Sea. Original artwork, drawings, paintings, silhouettes, ceramics and signed books for sale from Jan Pienkowski and David Walser. He died from complications of dementia on 19 February 2022, at the age of 85. [14] [15] The Booker Prize trophy [ edit ] Haunted House ( Heinemann, 1979) earned Pieńkowski his second Greenaway Medal (no one has won three). [9] The librarians describe it as "the house of petrifying pop-ups". [9] The pop-up book was so successful that Intervisual Books Inc. reproduced the book as part of its 1992 Annual Report. The report noted "Haunted House was first published in 1979, and has sold 1,083,366 copies, in 13 languages, to nearly 30 countries worldwide." [10]Oh no! A flood means that Christmas is looking doomed! Enter a spell, a surprise stay in a castle and a party to plan for - will Meg, Mog and Owl make it home for a very special Christmas Day? a b c "Jan Pienkowski". Broadcast episode recording (45 minutes). Desert Island Discs, Sunday, 18 October 2009. BBC Radio4. Retrieved 1 December 2012. Jan Michel Pieńkowski is a Polish-born British illustrator and author of children's books. He is probably best known for his Meg and Mog books with writer Helen Nicoll and for his pop-up books, including Haunted House (winner of the 1980 Kate Greenaway Medal), Robot, Dinner Time, Good Night and seventeen others. These included, in the 1970s, his own Fairy Tale Library – the six miniature books being designed to be “small enough for a child’s hand” with a text translated from the original Perrault and Grimm by Pienkowski’s long-term partner, David Walser. After Nicoll died in 2012, he added further Meg and Mog titles with new stories written by his partner, David Walser. Pieńkowski and Walser, a translator, artist, musician and writer, had been together for more than 40 years when they became civil partners in 2005 – as soon as it was possible to do so – settling in Hammersmith, west London. A devout Catholic, Pieńkowski was sorry not to be able to have the union solemnised in church, although his priest said vespers for the couple.

Odysseus must battle his way home from war with the Greek Gods pitted against him. But what will he find when he gets there? The origins of his style came from Pienkowski’s memories of paper cut-outs, a traditional art form in Poland, where he was born on August 8 1936. “As a child, I would sit at the table cutting paper decorations for Christmas, and at Whitsun it was the custom for a local paper cutter to come to the house to make new paper curtains for the kitchen,” he recalled. “I loved watching, especially when she unfolded it all.”As a young child, Pieńkowski was taught by his mother, who encouraged his passion for drawing and making things. On arrival in Britain, aged 10, he was sent to Lucton boarding school in Herefordshire, and added English to his already fluent German, Italian and Polish. His passion for art developed further after he started life-drawing classes at the age of 13. Francesca Dow, the managing director of Penguin Random House Children’s Books, confirmed that he died on Saturday morning.