Jon Berkeley
Encyclopedia
Background
He travelled widely in the 1980s, working freelance in London, Sydney and Hong Kong before returning to Dublin in 1992, where he formed a loose coalition known as Baggot Street Central with other leading Irish illustrators Roger O'Reilly, P.J. Lynch and Angela Clarke. He has lived in Barcelona since 1997.Illustration
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, the Sunday Independent
Sunday Independent
The Sunday Independent is a broadsheet Sunday newspaper published in Ireland by Independent News and Media plc. The newspaper is edited by Aengus Fanning, and is the biggest selling Irish Sunday newspaper by a large margin ; average circulation of 291,323 between June 2004 and January 2005,...
, Backbone and The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, and regularly feature on the cover of The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
. His 2003 Economist cover on obesity has since been reproduced in over a dozen publications.
Jon Berkeley's work typically features a strong central concept with a twist. He is also known for his sharp and colourful caricatures which have appeared in The Sunday Times UK
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
, Hot Press
Hot Press
Hot Press is a fortnightly music and political magazine based in Dublin, Ireland founded in 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it had a circulation of 19,215 during 2007...
and The LA Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
among others. He has received awards from the Society of News Design, the 4A's, and the Institute of Creative Advertising and Design.
Writing
Berkeley is the author and illustrator of Chopsticks (2005), the story of a mouse who brings to life a carved Chinese dragon.In 2005 he was offered six-figure advance by Harper Collins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
to write a trilogy of children's novels. The first of these, The Palace of Laughter
The Palace of Laughter
The Palace of Laughter, The Wednesday Tales #1, is a novel by Jon Berkeley, published in 2006. It tells the tale of an orphan named Miles Wednesday.-Plot:...
was shortlisted for the 2007 CBI Bisto award. Its sequel, The Tiger's Egg, was released in September 2007. The third and final book in the series, The Lightning Key, was released in January 2009. The series, illustrated by Brandon Dorman, is set in and around a sinister circus, and features such colourful characters as a 400-year-old girl, a talking tiger and a stately dowager who lives in a tree. It has been described by Angie Sage
Angie Sage
Angie Sage is the author of the Septimus Heap series which includes Magyk, Flyte, Physik, Queste, Syren, and Darke. She is also the illustrator and/or writer of many children's books, and is the new writer of the Araminta Spook series.Angie Sage grew up in Thames Valley, London and Kent. Her...
as 'a vivid journey of discovery.'
Berkeley's latest book, The Hidden Boy, was published in February 2010. It is the first in a new series about a young girl who wins 'the Holiday of a Lifetime'. She and her family are transported to a strange hidden world, only to find that there is no way back.