Author Profile: Bethan Woollvin is an author and illustrator from England
Name: Bethan Woollvin
Timeline:
2016 – Little Red Riding Hood
2017 – Rapunzel
2018 – Hansel and Gretel
2019 – The Button Book
2020 – Bo the Brave
Background: Bethan Woollvin graduated recently from the Cambridge School of Art. In 2015, she graduated with a First Class Degree from Anglia Ruskin University. Presently Bethan Woollvin resides in Sheffield England where she works as a freelance illustrator.
Genre: Bethan Woollvin was the eldest amongst the ten siblings. Being the eldest child she has had a better understanding about what different age groups find most appealing. A natural charm and dry wit exudes in all her work.
Bethan Woollvin gets her inspiration from vintage printing and illustration. Accordingly she tells stories in her picture books with illustrations, using quirky characters and bold colours.
Literary Contributions: Bethan Woollvin’s first picture book was a version of Little Riding Hood. With her version of Little Red Riding Hood, Bethan Woollvin has won the esteemed Macmillan Children’s Book Competition in the year 2014. She won the prize for her bold and classy interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood.
Unique Stylistic Features: Bethan Woollvin’s picture book talks about Little Red Riding Hood being retold by a feminist with a child-empowering and grisly edge. Little Red Riding Hood her debut book was indeed startlingly confident one which was followed by the equally feminist and striking take on her second picture book, on Rapunzel. There wasn’t any handsome prince in sight in Rapunzel.
The second picture book of Bethan Woollvin is about prince-free Rapunzel. The same single colour and mixture of stark white and black are featured in the second book as in her first book. The terse narrative voice and lack of indistinct prettiness shared by her voice complement her illustrative and style. Hansel and Gretel is her forthcoming picture book.
The Little Red Riding Hood picture book is her project given to her in the second year of her illustration degree. She has included her own illustrations and text in the broad brief handed over to her. With narrative illustration she has made the best of the opportunity given to experiment with illustrating for kids. She spent lots of time was spent on researching on fairy tales and their structure, experimenting on characters, etc. before taking the final plunge.
