Tilly lives in a little yellow house with five animal friends. There’s Tumpty the lovable elephant, Pru the vain chicken, Tiptoe the enigmatic rabbit, Doodle the bitey crocodile and Hector the rather sensitive pig.
I had the idea for a series of books about a bunch of friends while I was living in London and sharing a room, there were lots of us- it was cosy! We had great fun muddling along together but sometimes there tears too. I tried to capture our goings on in my sketchbooks, one of my first drawings was of an elephant stealing a chicken’s handbag, when I drew a guilty pig wearing mascara I knew I was on to something, from there the personalities evolved. After a few years and a lot of work these doodles became a series of six books, one for each character. You can listen to me talking about the creative process in the video at the bottom of this page.
Tilly and her friends have gone on to have many adventure beyond the original six books; they now star in their own animated television series aired on the Cbeebies channel. There are also Tilly books based on the stories from show.
'Brilliantly captures the exuberance of toddler life.' The Bookseller
‘Exquisite’ Daily Telegraph
'Nobody can draw anything more instantly loveable than one of Dunbar's characters.' Independent on Sunday
Published by Walker Books 2009
I had the idea for a series of books about a bunch of friends while I was living in London and sharing a room, there were lots of us- it was cosy! We had great fun muddling along together but sometimes there tears too. I tried to capture our goings on in my sketchbooks, one of my first drawings was of an elephant stealing a chicken’s handbag, when I drew a guilty pig wearing mascara I knew I was on to something, from there the personalities evolved. After a few years and a lot of work these doodles became a series of six books, one for each character. You can listen to me talking about the creative process in the video at the bottom of this page.
Tilly and her friends have gone on to have many adventure beyond the original six books; they now star in their own animated television series aired on the Cbeebies channel. There are also Tilly books based on the stories from show.
'Brilliantly captures the exuberance of toddler life.' The Bookseller
‘Exquisite’ Daily Telegraph
'Nobody can draw anything more instantly loveable than one of Dunbar's characters.' Independent on Sunday
Published by Walker Books 2009