Harriet is told that she will be in trouble if she touches the matches 'But Harriet said: 'Oh, what a pity!/ For, when they burn, it is so pretty / They crackle so, and spit, and flame:/Mamma, too, often does the same.'

Warnings about fire appear in cautionary tales – most famously in Heinrich Hoffman's mid-19th century The Dreadful Story of Harriet and the Matches from Der Strewwlpeter, which I remember scaring me mightily as a child. Picture books about the heroic work of firemen with their fire engines, from old-fashioned favourites such as Graham Greene's The Little Fire Engine, with its illustrations by Edward Ardizonne, to the currently popular Fireman Sam stories, carry implicit warnings about the dangers that fire cause, but most children will be more affected by the cleverness of the rescue than the cause. I also visited schools and libraries all over Britain to give talks about my work, and for the last three years have worked as a part time teaching assistant, helping children who are new to English., Fireman Sam Christmas Story Library: The Runaway Santa (Christmas Story Book) I have taught illustration at Harrow, Barnet, West Herts and Croydon Colleges of Art. I have illustrated for JACKANORY and JACKANORY PLAYHOUSE as well. I have also illustrated books for many other authors: Kevin Crossley-Holland, Geoffrey Trease, James Reeves, Adel Geras, Jamila Gavin and Robert Nye. The BBC and Channel 4 have made three of these books into short animated films for Children's TV - What Made Tiddalik Laugh, Tortoise's Dream, and The Tiger Child. One of these - How the Birds Changed Their Feathers, was commended for the KATE GREENAWAY MEDAL. Over the past 40 years I have worked on my own series of picture books - FOLK TALES OF THE WORLD, which I retold and illustrated. Ideas for my picture books have come from myths, legends, folk tales, fairy stories, folk songs and oral poetry.

I love traditional stories of all kinds and from any country throughout the world. I then became a freelance illustrator, and had my first book published when I was 22. When I was 17 I went to Hornsey College of Art for five years, leaving with a first class degree. I was born in London and have lived and worked there ever since. Lines in the Sand (One poem + one illustration) – Francis Lincoln The Animal Wrestlers – Cambridge University Press The Story of Running Water – Cambridge University Press The Chinese New Year – Cambridge University Press Monkey and the Water Dragon – Blackie, then Puffin How Stories Came into the World – Blackie Who Will Be the Sun – Blackie, then Puffin The Wizard Punchkin – Blackie, then Puffin How Rabbit Stole The Fire – Blackie, then Puffin What made Tiddalik Laugh – Blackie, then Puffin

How the Birds Changed their Feathers (Commended for the Kate Greenaway Medal) – Blackie, then Puffin Sir Gawain and the Loathly Damsel – Macmillan

Make-Believe Tales by Joanna Troughton