Martina Selway (1940–) Biography

Born 1940, in Worcestershire, England; Education: Shrewsbury College of Art, degree in printmaking and design, 1962. Hobbies and other interests: Travel in Europe, watercolors, sailing, hillwalking.

Addresses

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Hutchinson Books, Random House UK, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Rd., London SW1V 2SA, England.

Career

Author and illustrator. Stylist for still photographer in London, England, 1963–64; artist for advertising agency, 1964–66; freelance illustrator, 1966–. Background illustrator for animated film Beatles Yellow Submarine, 1967.

Member

Chelsea Arts Club, Ariel Sailing Club (London, England).

Honors Awards

National Diploma in Design.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

The Grunts: What a Day!, World's Work (Tadworth, England), 1982.

The Grunts Go on a Picnic, World's Work (Tadworth, England), 1982.

Greedyguts, Hutchinson (London, England), 1990.

Don't Forget to Write, Hutchinson (London, England), 1991, Ideals Publishing (Nashville, TN), 1992.

I Hate Roland Roberts (sequel to Don't Forget to Write), Hutchinson (London, England), 1993, Ideals Children's Books (Nashville, TN), 1994.

Wish You Were Here (sequel to I Hate Roland Roberts), Hutchinson (London, England), 1994, Ideals Children's Books (Nashville, TN), 1996.

What Can I Write?, Hutchinson (London, England), 1997.

So Many Babies: A Fun-to-Count Book, Hutchinson (London, England), 2001.

ILLUSTRATOR

Judith Miles, Beauty and the Beast (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1979.

Judith Miles, Needles, Nuts, and Nails (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1979.

Patricia Gray, Hello Tiger (reader), Longman (London, England), 1981.

Patricia Gray, Hello Panda (reader), Longman (London, England), 1981.

Patricia Gray, Hello Koala (reader), Longman (London, England), 1981.

Patricia Gray, Hello Elephant (reader), Longman (London, England), 1981.

Ann Cook, My Holiday at Home Scrapbook, Longman (London, England), 1981.

Ann Cook, My Holiday away Scrapbook, Longman (London, England), 1981.

Mr Tod and the Birthday Cake; and, Mr Tod and the Riddle (reader), Macmillan Education (London, England), 1982.

Diane Wilmer, Playing Soldiers (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1983.

Alison M. Wildfire, Merci de la letter, Edward Arnold (London, England), 1983.

Nicci Crowther, Dressing Up (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1983.

Pauline Burke and Eric Albany, Bronto's Number Rhyme Activity Book, Longman (Harlow, England), 1984.

Pauline Burke and Eric Albany, Bronto's Furniture Cart, Longman (Harlow, England), 1984.

Pauline Burke and Eric Albany, Bronto's Counting Book, Longman (Harlow, England), 1984.

Pauline Burke and Eric Albany, Bronto Moves into His Cave, Longman (Harlow, England), 1984.

Pauline Burke and Eric Albany, Bronto Paints His Cave, Longman (Harlow, England), 1984.

Pauline Burke and Eric Albany, Bronto Meets Bird and Frog, Longman (Harlow, England), 1984.

Elizabeth Adams and Andrew Ross, At the Zoo (activity book), Longman (Harlow, England), 1985.

Elizabeth Adams and Andrew Ross, In the Town (activity book), Longman (Harlow, England), 1985.

Elizabeth Adams and Andrew Ross, At the Seaside (activity book), Longman (Harlow, England), 1985.

Elizabeth Adams and Andrew Ross, On the Farm (activity book), Longman (Harlow, England), 1985.

Pat Edwards, Atishoo (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, The Trumpet (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, Tea Time (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, Fred Makes a Shelf (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, Fred's Birthday (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, Fred's Mess (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, Goodnight (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, Fred's Friends (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, The Joggers (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, Pancakes (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, The Sandwich (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, The Picnic (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, Get Some Bread, Fred (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Wendy Body, Fred's Snowman (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Wendy Body, The Jumper (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Wendy Body, Christmas (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1987.

Pat Edwards, Fred's Photo Album (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1990.

Pat Edwards, The Skateboard (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1990.

Pat Edwards, Fred in Space (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1990.

Pat Edwards, The Wasp (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1990.

Pat Edwards, A Sunflower Named Burt (reader), Longman (Harlow, England), 1990.

Pat Edwards, Something Nasty!, Sundance (Littleton, MA), 1999.

Pat Edwards, What's That?, Sundance (Littleton, MA), 1999.

Pat Edwards, The Photograph, Sundance (Littleton, MA), 1999.

Pat Edwards, Fred's Cold, Sundance (Littleton, MA), 1999.

Pat Edwards, Fred Fixes a Faucet, Sundance (Littleton, MA), 1999.

Pat Edwards, Clean out the Fridge, Fred!, Sundance (Littleton, MA), 1999.

Pat Edwards, A Visit to Cousin Boris, Sundance (Littleton, MA), 1999.

Pat Edwards, The Visitor, Sundance (Littleton, MA), 1999.

Anna Perera, Lolly Woe, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2001.

Rebecca Whitford, Little Yoga: A Toddler's First Book of Yoga, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2005.

Colorist for Charles E. Brock's illustrations for Gulliver's Travels: My Adventures in Lilliput, by Lemuel Gulliver, Retold by Jonathan Swift, Castle Books, 1979. Illustrator for "You and Me Storybooks" series and other readers, Longman Group, beginning 1979; and "Maths Storybooks" series, Longman Cheshire Australia, 1991.

Sidelights

Martina Selway is a British author and illustrator who has worked in advertising, photography, and animated films in addition to establishing a long career in children's publishing. While much of her illustration work has appeared in educational readers such as the long-running "Fred" series by Pat Edwards, Selway has also produces the self-illustrated books Don't Forget to Write, Wish You Were Here, and I Hate Roland Roberts as well as the picture book So Many Babies: A Fun-to-Count Book. Based on the tradition nursery rhyme about the old woman who lives in a shoe, So Many Babies finds Mrs. Badger frustrated by the fact that her habit of adopting orphaned animal babies has left her with no room in which to live. In Don't Forget to Write and its sequel, a letter written by Rosie while taking her first trip away from home shows the young girl's gradual adjustment to life in the country and her growing affection for her loving grandparents. In Publishers Weekly a reviewer praised the book's "reassuring message and its portrayal of the strength of a grandparent's hospitality and love." Selway's artwork is a strength of Rebecca Whitford's 2005 picture book Little Yoga: A Toddler's First Book of Yoga. DeAnn Tabuchi described the book's illustrations as "playful" and "brightly hued" in her review for School Library Journal, while Booklist contributor Gillian Engberg maintained that Selway's "cheerfully designed" and heavily outlined drawings of toddlers in basic yoga poses combine with Whitford's text to arm parents with "new ideas for channeling toddler energy."

Selway once told SATA: "I left art college and came to London where I initially found work as a stylist for a well-known stills photographer at the beginning of the swinging 1960s. I quickly moved on to work as a visualiser with one of the big advertising agencies. While there, I began to specialize in illustration jobs. During this time, freelance commissions started to roll in and soon I had to quit my full-time job. I did a series of Colors and counting are just a few of the concepts addressed in Selway's fanciful and colorful self-illustrated picture book So Many Babies: A Fun-to-Count Book.posters for the National Savings Bank and the London Transport Authority. I also began work on a major commission for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to produce nearly five hundred drawings for a series of French-language teaching programs.

"Educational publishing was expanding rapidly during this period, and I worked with many of the well-known publishers, including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Macmillan, Collins, and the Longman Group. These publishers are still some of my biggest clients.

"In 1967 my work was seen by the director of Television Cartoons, Ltd., who invited me to join a small team of background artists for the animated feature film Beatles Yellow Submarine. This was a great experience. I got to work with many talented people, including the great Canadian animator George Dunning and the German designer Heinz Edelmann, whose work in the pages of Twen magazine greatly influenced the London scene at the time.

"My first daughter, Sophie, was born in 1970, and Gemma followed in 1973. Children and homebuilding had to take precedence over my career for a while. The film experience, however, led to other commissions for more manageable children's programmes by BBC-TV and Thames Television. The work was fun and was seen by millions of children. My own kids soon became my severest critics. The Longman Group began to publish tie-in books that corresponded to the television programs. My involvement with books for small children grew when they asked me to illustrate a number of books by their own authors.

"My first books as an author/illustrator were two volumes about a family of pigs, the Grunts, that were published by Worlds Work. Little did I know that my pigs would become the role model for Fred Pig, the central character in a reading scheme authored by Pat Edwards. Fred appears in a series of dozens of books published by Longman Group, including Fred's Photo Album, Fred Makes a Shelf, and Fred's Friends. I took my next idea to Hutchinson Children's Books and in 1990 they published Greedyguts, the story of a greedy, bullying giant defeated by a clever little boy who gets his village to work together as a team."