Known to generations of children (and their parents) for his illustrations for the books of Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake has worked on more than 300 other titles—dozens of which he wrote himself.

A Dozen Drawings of Old Friends: A Fundraising Sale for the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration will run online from 4 to 14 March. This sale features recent work from Blake, revisiting some beloved characters such as Matilda, the BFG, Mrs Armitage and many others. As the sale title suggests, the proceeds will go to support the new Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration in London.

In the run up to the sale, we asked Lindsey Glen, Director of the Centre, about Blake and her experience of working with him over the years.

1. “Quentin was so encouraging and generous”

What do you remember from your first meeting with Quentin Blake?

Back in 2011, I attended a festival in Kings Cross with my family. We were enjoying a portraits activity, put together by Quentin and the team behind a proposed museum for illustration, when he came over and began drawing beside us! As a life-long fan, I was thrilled.

When his exhibition Inside Stories opened the new House of Illustration (the original name for the Centre), I was straight through the doors. Many years later, mid-pandemic, I saw an advertisement for the Director post and just had to apply.

Because I joined during the pandemic, it was a while before we could meet in person. Instead, we had a lovely phone conversation in which Quentin was so encouraging and generous. Eventually we were able to catch up in person, where we talked of the exciting plans for the new centre that will bear his name.

2. He thought illustration was overlooked—and wanted to change that

Why did Quentin Blake found the Centre for Illustration—what sparked his ideas to set up the charity with his friends?

Illustration impacts everyone’s daily lives: it enables us to learn, conveys vital (even life-saving) information, sells us products and shares our stories. It pre-dates the written word by 40,000 years and is more immediately absorbed. Yet, surprisingly, it has been little explored in our museums and galleries.

With characteristic generosity, Quentin set about addressing this by founding a charity that could eventually provide a permanent national centre for illustration: a place where people could explore it, as a vital art form, in all its wondrous diversity and become illustrators themselves.

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3. Even in his nineties, he’s still busy drawing!

How often is Quentin Blake involved with the charity?

Quentin’s plan to ‘bang the drum for illustration’ is never far from our minds, but he mostly leaves the running of the charity to its staff team—he is just very busy drawing! 

4. “Quentin has amazing recall”—and knows how to connect the dots

Can you tell us about working with Quentin Blake on the opening of the new gallery in 2025?

Quentin has amazing recall of his very large archive and of the work of other illustrators, from 19th century satirists to the people he taught at the Royal College of Art in the 1980s.

Working together has usually meant freewheeling conversations about all sorts of things that have somehow become ideas for projects, books and exhibitions. I expect work on his gallery will be the same, and that we will be finding connections between his earliest work from the 1950s and the drawings that are being made in his home studio now.

5. His huge archive contains some of his best-loved drawings

Do you have a favourite illustration from Quentin Blake's archive and why is it your favourite?

Can I give you three?

1. The portrait of Michael Rosen smiling (but not smiling) in The Sad Book—a heartbreaking image, created with such characteristic care and deep empathy. I’ve heard so many people talk about how this image, and this book, have touched them in the hardest of times.
2. The BFG holding Sophie in his hand—an image of true listening and such love.
3. Mrs Armitage on her bike, with her dog, and sails, and bunting, a boom box, and... I thought of her often as I cycled to New River Head, the future site of Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, in the early months of my new job as Director.

But I expect I’d give you a different answer tomorrow!

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6. He wants his Centre to keep championing budding illustrators and the history of illustration

Do you know what Quentin Blake hopes will be his legacy as an artist and with the Centre?

I don’t know that Quentin thinks much about his legacy. To him, there are always new drawings to do, a new type of pastel to become obsessed with, or an interesting commission to ponder.

But he is serious about the legacies the Centre can create: by exploring the little-told history of illustration and supporting budding illustrators of all ages.

7. He can still find new ways to bring much-loved characters to life, even 60 years on

What inspired Quentin to return to these beloved characters for the upcoming auction?

Quentin draws his characters with such energetic pen and brush strokes, they look like they’ve just leapt into life. But some of his iconic characters were born decades ago, and since then Quentin has created many other things. Today he is working in his studio on large-scale works on paper that are quite different from his book illustrations.

As we have been working on plans for showing works from Quentin’s archive at the future Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, we have been looking at original illustrations for books he illustrated in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. It seemed the perfect moment for Quentin to revisit these much-loved books that have become modern classics.

Find out more about the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration at www.qbcentre.org.uk

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