Chris Riddell

And so I realised that actually there's, up until, you know, that point, I was one of these illustrators who wasn't, you know, including sort of diverse characters particularly.

So in my books, Goth Girl and my Ottoline series,

they are all sort of white kids.

And I thought, there's no reason for that.

There's no real reason for that.

Now, obviously, my subject matter will be what it is, you know, subject matter that occurs to me when I write or when Neil gives me a text.

But there's no real reason to not be diverse and reflect many different types of faces and characters.

And so since then, I've tried to, as I

create things, alter my mindset and say, right, let's have lots of different people.

Let's be as diverse as possible.

I've just, last year, I published a middle grade novel called The Guardians of Magic.

And I want to, you know, I have got an Asian main character and a black character and a white character.

They're all the principal characters, the three of them.

And really, because I thought, why not?

Why not do this?

And so when it came to illustrating Neil's picture book, I thought, yes, let's have a really nice multi-ethnic, for want of a better word, cast here.

Because I think books and reading are wonderfully inclusive activities.

They're empathic.

They open us up to new worlds and new ways of seeing things.

And I think it's important for visual artists such as me to reflect that.