Wildest Cowboy

Garth Jennings has directed many music videos and commercials as one third of the production company Hammer and Tongs. His work includes videos for Blur, Radiohead, Beck, Fatboy Slim and Vampire Weekend. He is the director of two feature films - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) and Son of Rambow (2007) for which he also wrote the screenplay. He has just directed the newly released, Golden Globe nominated, Sing, a feature length animated film with an all-star cast, from the studio that created Despicable Me. He has also written The Deadly Seven for Macmillan Children's Books. Sara Ogilvie is an award-winning illustrator and printmaker who won the 2011 Booktrust Best New Illustrator Award and the Books are my Bag Readers Award, 2016. The first picture book that she illustrated, Dogs Don't Do Ballet, was also shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. In addition to working on her picture books, Sara lectures in Illustration and Graphic Design at Northumbria University and continues to create work that is exhibited worldwide. She is inspired by many things including old second-hand bookshops, old wives tales and trying to spell sounds. Sara lives in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Wild West isn’t usually a setting for many picture books (at least in the UK), which seems a shame based on this riotous, colourful adventure, which fuses the joy of fancy dress with the dusty remoteness of a pioneer town. This is film director and writer Garth Jennings’ debut picture book, and his Seuss-like rhyming text powers the story along with the bouncy rhythm of Bingo B Brown’s train. Sara Ogilvie’s vibrant, animated and detailed illustration is a perfect partner, giving a fearless sense of fun triumphing over fear.