PJ Lynch Book Collection

PJ Lynch was born in Belfast, and became interested in art at an early age. He has worked as a children’s book illustrator since leaving Brighton College of Art in England in 1984, and has illustrated dozens of books, including modern editions of classic books such as Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. PJ has been awarded the Christopher Medal three times, and he also won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal on two occasions, first for The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski, and again for When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest. His first illustrated book was A Bag of Moonshine by Alan Garner, a collection of folklore tales from England and Wales, which was published in 1986. For that work he won the Mother Goose Award given to the most exciting newcomer to British children’s book illustration. Since then folklore – traditional stories, legends, and fairy tales – have been a recurring subject of his work. PJ illustrated the anthology Once Upon a Place, which was compiled by Eoin Colfer as Laureate na nÓg. In 2015, PJ published The Boy who Fell off the Mayflower, which was the first picture book he also authored. Since then, he has illustrated books including Eoin Colfer’s The Dog Who Lost His Bark and Patrick and the President, by Ryan Tubridy. The most recent book authored and illustrated by PJ, The Haunted Lake, was the winner of the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Honour Award for Illustration 2021. PJ Lynch was Ireland’s fourth Laureate na nÓg (2016-2018).