Quentin Blake in conversation with Sir Christopher Frayling

Tickets: £12, Foundling Friends £10 (includes entry to the Museum and exhibition)

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Quentin Blake was born in the suburbs of London in 1932.  As, according to the Times, “our most renowned book illustrator” he has more than 300 books to his credit in a career of over fifty years.  His most celebrated partnership is with Roald Dahl, which is known world-wide, but he also has ongoing collaborations with Russell Hoban, John Yeoman, Michael Rosen, and other writers. He also creates his own picturebooks and characters such as Mister Magnolia and Mrs Armitage are longstanding favourites with young readers. Since 2000 his work has expanded to the walls of museums, hospitals and other public spaces.  Many of these works are prints, and some are available for sale.  Quentin Blake’s most recent work includes sequences of images for the Vincent Square Clinic, the Unicorn Theatre, and the new maternity unit of Angers Hospital in France, some of which are displayed in the Foundling Museum's current exhibition, Quentin Blake - As large as life.

Quentin Blake is a CBE and an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, as well as an honorary Doctor of Cambridge University, the Royal College of Art, the University of the Arts London , and other universities.  In 1999 he was appointed the first Children’s Laureate, and among his other awards is the Hans Christian Andersen prize, the premier international award for Children’s books.

Christopher Frayling was until recently Rector of the Royal College of Art - the only wholly postgraduate university of art and design in the world - and Chairman of Arts Council England. He has also been Chairman of the Design Council, of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, of the Crafts Study Centre - and the longest-serving Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He is currently a Fellow of Churchill College Cambridge, an 1851 Commissioner, and Professor Emeritus of Cultural History at the RCA. In 2000, he was knighted for "services to art and design education".

Christopher has published nineteen books on art, design and popular culture - including the official history of the Royal College of Art, 'The Art Pack'. He has curated exhibitions at Tate Britain ('Gothic Nightmares'), the V&A ('Sovereign'), the Museum of Western Heritage Los Angeles ('Once Upon a Time in Italy') and the RCA ('Designs of the Times'). He is also an award-winning broadcaster on network radio and television.

For as long as he can remember, he has been a dedicated campaigner for the arts and arts education at all levels as public responsibilities. He has known Quentin Blake, as an artist and as an educator, since the 1970s.