Jessica Souhami studied at the Central School of Art and Design. In 1980 she formed Mme Souhami and Co, a travelling puppet company using colourful shadow puppets with a musical accompaniment and a storyteller.

Her illustrations, like her puppets, use brilliant colour and bold shapes and her characters leap and swoop across the spreads.

Her books for Frances Lincoln are Sausages!, In the Dark, Dark Wood, Baba Yaga and the Stolen Baby, Leopard s Drum, No Dinner!, Rama and the Demon King, The Famous Adventures of a Bird Brained Hen, The Little, Little House, Mrs McCool and the Giant Cuchulainn and King Pom and the Fox.