Northern Highlight - Ness Wood

 Northern Highlight - Ness Wood


Ness Wood

Why did you want to work in the children's book industry?


I always wanted to be a designer from spending most of my childhood colouring in! I didn’t really know what one was and so my Art ‘O’ Level was filled with record cover designs. I ended up working in Children’s Books after studying graphic design at Salford University. I applied for over 100 positions, and the then Art director at Collins (now HarperCollins) Publishers Ian Butterworth took a chance on me and gave me a junior designer job. I was ecstatic! I came to London with my mate Mandy (sherliker_design). Both of us from up North, she sold her little car and my mum gave me £100 and we slept on someone's floor for 6 weeks!


My family heirloom The Illustrated Treasury of Children’s Literature is a children's book published by Collins and given to me on my 1st birthday - so I was destined to get my first job there!

Tell us about where you live.

I now live in Didsbury, in South Manchester. I moved to Manchester about 3 years ago. I think of London as my home, as I left the North many years ago to grow up and find out about life. I came out there and met amazing good friends, however, I wanted to buy somewhere to live so I moved back and I bought a flat two years ago and I am making a life here.

Where are you happiest working?


I have always worked from home, being freelance and so being at my desk with a great book design project makes me happy. My latest book is a brilliant collaboration with Maisie and Rose (maisieparadise and iamroseblake) – so, watch this space especially if you LOVE cats!


What for you is the "spirit of the North" and has this spirit influenced your work?

My parents were not very well off and my mum worked very hard in a laundrette most of her life and so her incredible work ethic definitely rubbed off on me; her multi-tasking, for me, is one of the ‘spirits of the north’. I am a very hard worker, but I do think there is a balance which I am still striving to gain!

Who for you are the great northern children’s illustrators?

Well, there are so many . . . Maisie Paradise Shearring who is so incredibly talented. Martin Chatterton is someone that I commissioned when I started in book design - he’s from Liverpool and John Vernon Lord went to Salford also . . . plus I love Cara Rooney’s work and she is based in Dundee - one to watch!

If you could be transported to anywhere in the North right now, where would it be? 

This would be swimming with my mate, the amazing woman and CBN co-founder Tilda Johnson, from Golden Egg, in Pickmere Lake, Cheshire - we have lots of fun.

What would you like to see from children's publishing in the North?

More Publishing Houses setting up here, I know they are beginning to but definitely more. More opportunities for graduates who can’t afford or don’t have the luxury to move to London. I am a Leader in Residence at UCLAN and they have an incredible team of lecturers who work on the Publishing MA run by Alexa Gregson-Kenmuir.

What's your favourite children's book set in the North?

Tricky, I do love The Railway Children by E. Nesbit, which I always think is set down south, but it’s not, it’s in Yorkshire.
It’s a story of change and kindness and hope.

Maisie did a personal project cover for this ages ago - I think it’d look great on the book! 

https://maisieparadise.co.uk/The-Railway-Children


You can follow Ness on Instagram and Twitter





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