FOREMAN, Michael

1938 - ?

Michael Foreman was born at 2 London Road, Pakefield, Lowestoft, Suffolk on 21 March 1938, son of Walter Thomas Foreman (1900-1938), who kept the village shop, and who died a month before Michael's birth, and his wife Gladys M. Mace (23 October 1897-27 April 1982), who married in 1927. In 1939 Michael was living at the Pakefield shop with the family but in 1941 the family home was struck by an enemy bomb but he, his mother and his two elder brothers all survived. Michael studied at Lowestoft School of Arts and Crafts under Eleanor Doris Varley and at St Martin's School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London from where he won a scholarship to study in the United States and his first children's book was published while he was still a student. After completing his studies, he travelled all over the world, making films and television commercials and making hundreds of sketches which he later used as the inspiration for many of his books. Michael Foreman writes and illustrates his own books and has illustrated books by authors such as Dickens, Shakespeare, The Brothers Grimm, Roald Dahl, and Rudyard Kipling, has designed Christmas stamps for the Post Office, and regularly contributes illustrations to American and European magazines and has exhibited at the Royal Academy. He won the 1982 and 1989 Kate Greenaway Medals for British children's book illustration and was a commended runner up five times. He married his first wife, author Jane Charters, in 1959 and their son Mark was born the following year. He now lives in London and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 birthday honours for services to literature.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 5 Church Gate, London
1986 989 The Nile at Aswan - watercolour

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Works by This Artist