"A visiting lecturer suggested I find a children’s story and illustrate some of the text. I chose Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, the wonderful story of the adventures of Mole, Ratty and Toad and completed five large full colour illustrations towards the end of the graphics course. I would like to thank Andre Amstutz, (the illustration lecturer in question and collaborator on many books with Allan Ahlberg), for his encouragement. Without doubt it led to my becoming a children’s book illustrator.
At the end of the course I started a job as a graphic designer/illustrator in London for a firm of business consultants doing charts, maps and graphs. After a year I approached Methuen, who still owned the rights to publish The Wind in the Willows, with my five illustrations. Back then, in 1978, if you wrote a polite letter asking to show your work you were invariably asked in for an interview. Unbelievably they asked if I would be interested in illustrating three chapters from the book in large picture format to introduce younger readers to the classic tale. It was the beginning of a wonderful working relationship with Methuen which lasted for 10 years. During this time I was short-listed for The Frances Williams Award at the V&A for Moles Christmas. It was the year Raymond Briggs won for The Snowman." Beverley Gooding
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