Steve McCarthy is an Irish designer, illustrator, and bearded gentleman. His style is bold, colourful and inspired by humour and wit. Working with a mix of practical and digital techniques, his work feels most comfortable somewhere between the yellow submarine and Dumbo's pink elephants. Steve was home-schooled and had a very free childhood, which was the inspiration behind The Wilderness.

His poetry anthology with Sarah Webb, A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea was the 2017 Children’s Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Steve comes from working as a background designer, most notably for the animated feature film Song of the Sea, which was nominated for an academy award in 2015. He was also an Artist in Residence for Facebook in Dublin in 2018. He lives in south east London.