The children’s author remembers his friend and collaborator of 35 years, whose ‘seemingly inexhaustible flow of nonsense’ drove their bestselling Treehouse books
Terry was assigned to me as my illustrator when I wrote an educational book called Swinging on the Clothesline, back in 1991. The publisher said, “We know this guy’s got a good sense of humour. We think you’ll get along really well.” They were absolutely right. Terry drew these kids swinging on the clothesline at a very high speed, flying off into the ether. I was like, that’s what I’m about. He created everyday portals into wild fantasy.
The first time we met in-person was at a festival around 1995. I was quite awestruck – this was the great Terry Denton, winner of the CBCA Picture Book award! I watched him do a session with the kids where he was drawing cows in various emotional states: “This is a terrified cow. This is a peaceful cow. This is a cow in love …”
