Allan Plenderleith is the author and illustrator of THE SMELLY SPROUT and a recent convert to the humble Brussels sprout (which he is perfectly happy to scoff as long at is is accompanied with bacon and lashings of butter).  The idea for The Smelly Sprout came to him after a Christmas dinner where no-one actually ate the sprouts so lovingly prepared by his mum.

Allan is best known for creating the CBeebies show Gordon the Garden Gnome and the UK's favourite greetings card family, The Odd Squad.

He was born in East Kilbride in Scotland where he would spend his idle hours doodling and coming up with daft stories.  No change there then.

He now lives in Hertfordshire, England with his wife Rebeccah, also a children's author, and his two children Max and Tilly.

Allan's philosophy is that children's books should work on many levels - they should be both funny, sad, exciting and moving with endings you can't see coming.

His second book, published Oct 2009 is
THE BOY GIANT, available now from Waterstone's, WHSmith, Amazon and all good bookshops and as a best selling app on iTunes.  

Look out next Christmas for his latest... something about Princesses and chocolate...