Britta Teckentrup is an award winning illustrator, author and fine artist. She was born in Hamburg and grew up in a city called Wuppertal.

She moved to London in 1988 to study illustration and fine art at St Martin’s College and the Royal College of Art. Her awards include a nomination for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis and two Special Mention at the Bologna Ragazzi Award for ‘Alle Wetter’ and ‘The Egg’.

‘Don’t Wake Up Tiger’ was Dutch picture book of the year 2018 and ‘Under the Same Sky’ on the shortlist for the Kate Greenaway Award.

Britta has been invited to give workshops at The Edinburgh Book Festival, Hay Festival, Bath Festival and Ilustratour and her fine art work has been frequently exhibited at her London gallery and at art fairs all over the world.

Since 1993 Britta has written and illustrated over 120 picture books which have been translated into over 30 different languages.

After 17 years in the UK – Britta now lives and works in Berlin with her Scottish husband and their son.

Today Britta joins Ian Eagleton in The Reading Realm to talk about her fabulous new book AGAIN! A BIG HEDGEHOG AND LITTLE HEDGEHOG ADVENTURE…

Before we settle down in The Reading Realm and talk about your new book, what’s your drink and snack of choice? 

My drink and snack of choice is either a green tea or a cup of coffee and I am totally addicted to raspberries and blueberries.

Without giving too much away, what can you tell us about your new book Again! A Big Hedgehog and Little Hedgehog Adventure? 

‘Again’ is the latest adventure of Big Hedgehog and Little Hedgehog. They have just woken up from their winter’s sleep and are both excited to re-join the world. Little Hedgehog is full of energy because spring has finally sprung and wants to explore the world and try out everything – again and again!

Big Hedgehog happily and patiently joins in …

I really loved another one of your books called The Swing. How is this story similar? How is it different?

Thank you!

The two books are quite different.

‘Again’ is a book for very young children – a typical picture book in length and format. The story focuses on the beautiful relationship between Big Hedgehog and Little Hedgehog and the lives they live.

‘The Swing’ on the other hand is a book for slightly older children and could also works for adults. It has an unusual format and is 160 pages long. The story follows the lifecycle of a swing and its many visitors. It is a meditation on childhood, growing older, family, the light and shade of friendship, love, and lives being lived and lost.

Relationships, connection, life’s experiences and nature are always the themes that connect my books.

The illustrations in Again! are beautiful! What was your process like for illustrating this book? What materials did you use?

I combine analogue and digital processes.

My illustrations are a mix of hand-printed textures (mainly oil paint on newsprint) and Photoshop to create a digital collage.

A lot of your books are concerned with the natural world. Where do you think this love of nature comes from?

Nature always fascinated me and still does.

When I illustrate, I always try to go back to that place of wonder and fascination I had as a child. I like to match emotional landscapes with natural landscapes. I grew up in the outskirts of a city which was quite rural. We lived opposite a forest and I would say that I had a childhood quite close to nature. I was allowed to roam through the little forest with my friends. My father loved gardening and feeding the birds. In the summer I visited my grandmother. She grew berries and had a cherry and a quince tree in her small garden – we would pick the fruits and make jam and juices. She seemed to know the name of every tree and every flower. She definitely planted a seed of wonder of the natural world inside of me. I also grew up watching many animal documentaries which I still love watching today. When I was a child, I liked to collect small objects that felt like treasure –pebbles, pine cones, pressed leaves or flowers, seed pods, broken eggs and bird feathers … I still do!

Something tiny and small that can sometimes be a universe in itself.

Are there any plans to revisit Big Hedgehog and Little Hedgehog? Have you got any ideas about what they might be up to right now?

There are already two more books in the making but I can’t say too much about them yet.

But they both involve a celebration.

Finally, can you describe Again! in three words? 

Again, again, again!