Early life

Heap was born in 1954 in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. As a child she would write a draw to reflect her rootless lifestyle, living in such places as Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 and Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

. Later she earned an art college degree from the Hull College of Art.

Style and Works

Typical of Heap's illustrative style are people lacking necks with large gaps between their eyes.

Heap is well-known for her illustrations in Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline Wilson

Dame Jacqueline Wilson, DBE, FRSL is an award-winning English author, known for her vast and diverse work in children's literature. Her novels have been adapted numerous times for television, and commonly deal with such challenging themes as adoption, divorce and mental illness...

's books, such as in How to Survive Summer Camp

How to Survive Summer Camp

How to Survive Summer Camp is a novel written by Jacqueline Wilson and illustrated by Sue Heap. It was first published in 1985...

(ISBN 978-0192727046) and Double Act

Double Act (novel)

Double Act is a 1995 children's novel by Jacqueline Wilson, written in the style of a diary, which follows the story of identical twins, Ruby and Garnet...

(ISBN 978-0440413745), co-illustrating the latter with Nick Sharratt

Nick Sharratt

Nick Sharratt is a British illustrator and author of children's books, and was chosen to be the Official Illustrator for World Book Day 2006...

.

Awards and nominations

1998 winner of the Smarties Prize Gold Award.

Nominated for the Greenaway Medal for her work with Sharratt

Nick Sharratt

Nick Sharratt is a British illustrator and author of children's books, and was chosen to be the Official Illustrator for World Book Day 2006...

, Red Rockets and Rainbow Jelly.

External links

• Author Profile