Suzy-Jane Tanner was born in London in 1951 and attended art colleges in Paris and London, graduating in 1972. Following graduation, she spent 4 years working as a studio artist in the character merchandise department of Walt Disney Productions in London, following which she worked freelance on designs for character merchandise and as a children’s illustrator.

Since 1980 Suzy has concentrated on writing and illustrating books for young children. In the early 80s she went to USA for 18 months to illustrate 2 books for Celestial Arts/Dawne Leigh in San Francisco. Since then she has written and/or illustrated around 100 books for young children, first published in UK, USA, Italy and North Korea but also published in other countries and translated into 14 languages.

Books (as author/ illustrator) include the Fred & Ursulina and Nursery Elephant series for Random House, Bunnies & Bears books for David Bennett Books, Festival flap series and Tinyflock Nursery School for Harper Collins, Counting Sheep for Tango Books and Socrates for Filippo Editore. Suzy has also illustrated many books by other authors. She has exhibited in UK and abroad, most recently as part of the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature in September 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2001, Suzy was invited to exhibit by Global Arts Link (Brisbane, Australia). The solo exhibition Beary Tales: The Illustrations of Suzy-Jane Tanner ran from April-July 2001.

Suzy now lives in Bath. In addition to writing/illustrating books, she is currently developing a range of Giclée prints, greeting cards and wallpaper murals based on her illustrations. As well as her work, she enjoys travel, making beaded jewellery and growing vegetables on her allotment.