This book is about me, Clarice Bean.

It’s a very funny book and all of the pages have pictures mostly of me. There are some annoying bits when my little brother barges in on pages 8 and 9 so you might want to miss them out…

Lauren says: I remember drawing a picture of a scruffy looking girl. Then I wrote a little bit of text and then I drew a bit more and wrote a few lines and so on. I had the type weaving around the drawings and it was all written from the girl’s point of view, as if she had just met you and was telling you all about her life.
I wasn’t really trying to write a picture book, I was trying to come up with an idea for an animation. I thought I would use a different typeface for each person because it would mean that just by looking at the picture you could hear what kind of voice they had. I wanted the pictures to surprise you as you turned the pages, so I used all kinds of different materials. This gave the whole book a scrapbook feel – as if the girl herself had done it.
I called her Clarice Bean Tuesday. Because I don’t know anyone called that.

I started writing books by accident when I imagined up Clarice Bean, 20 years ago. Now I would rather write books than do anything else.

This book was sent to lots of publishers. Some people liked the words. Some people liked the pictures. Not many people liked them both together. Hardly anyone liked the type. A few thought it shouldn’t be written from a child’s point of view. No one thought it would work as a book the way it was. I didn’t want to change it. I waited for five years. I started making lampshades.
I mixed paints for an artist. I became a receptionist. Nothing happened…

Finally I got a letter. It said, ‘yes’. I still have it. It was one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me.