Artist and author Leigh Hobbs is best known for the twenty three children’s books he has written and illustrated featuring his characters Old Tom, Horrible Harriet, Mr Chicken, Fiona the Pig, Mr Badger and The Freaks in 4F. As an artist in fact, he works across a wide range of mediums.
His ceramic Flinders Street Station Tea Pot is in the collection of The National Gallery of Victoria. The National Library of Australia and the State Libraries of Western Australia, NSW and Victoria hold an extensive collection of his drawings, paintings and sketchbooks.
Leigh was a secondary school art teacher for twenty-five years and in 2016 / 2017 was the Australian Children’s Laureate. He has presented and run writing and drawing workshops for children and adults at Literature Festivals in the USA, UK and of course Australia.
In 2019 he, along with five other Australian authors, was honoured by Australia Post with a stamp in their ‘Australian Legend of Children’s Literature’ series.
