Stephen Axelsen
Stephen Axelsen was born in Sydney, Australia 9th March, 1953. After a model boyhood, Piccolesque in nature, Stephen completed a B.A. in Social Sciences. Somehow along the way, he taught himself to draw just well enough to begin a career, in 1974, as a children's book illustrator, which continues to this day. He now lives behind a sand dune in northern New South Wales, listening to the Pacific Ocean, with his wife and grown children, a cat and a budgie.
Apart from some early picture books, the Piccolo and Annabelle series is his first attempt a writing for children. He enjoys writing immensely, and, with the help of a discerning public, hopes to do more.
When not drawing or writing, he enjoys gardening, beginning to build garden walls and not quite finishing them, and reading, mostly children's literature. His was influenced mainly by English writers such as Roald Dahl and Terry Prachett. and illustrators like Arthur Rackham and Quentin Blake.
