Shoo Rayner

The first thing we need to clear up is the origin of the name Shoo - "I was christened Hugh," reveals Rayner, "when I was three months old, we moved to Pakistan, where no one, least of all the people looking after me, could pronounce the name. I became Shoo, and it stuck.

Back in England, after leaving school, Shoo worked at signwriting and silk screen printing. His next job was drawing maps for the Land Registry at Peterborough. He also tried his hand at becoming a rock singer and songwriter.

Aged 24, he went to Cambridge Art School, because he wanted to become an illustrator. Initially, he earned his living by illustrating the work of other writers. His first stab at writing was with six stories for an Oxford University Press reading scheme. When he came to writing the text for picture books, he found that it was similar to writing songs.

Shoo has received enormous acclaim from children, parents and teachers for Hey Diddle Diddle, his inventive nursery rhyme book. One of Shoo's specialities is joke books (check out The Pirate's Secret Joke Book and The Christmas Stocking Joke Book). He's also your man when you're thinking of making resolutions, either for New Year or for the whole Millennium! And, let's not forget, this is the man who brought Santa's Diary into print. "It just fell at my feet," says Shoo, of the book which reveals how Santa visits every continent on Christmas Eve, when he does his Christmas shopping and the technology he uses to get every present to match every child.

There are currently three books in Shoo's popular Cyril's Cat series for beginner readers. Each book features a winning combination of text and pictures with two adventures in each about Cyril, his cat Charlie and Charlie's kitten Chip.

Shoo Rayner writes for a wide age-range, from toddlers to pre-teens. "The idea comes first and suggests a certain age-range," he says.