Benjamin Phillips author page

Benjamin Phillips biography

Benjamin Phillips is a British illustrator and artist. He is best known for his work on the graphic novel Alte Zachen / Old Things, written by Ziggy Hanaor and published by Cicada Books in 2022. The story follows a boy and his grandmother as they travel through New York, combining present-day scenes with memories of the past.

Phillips’s illustrations in the book use shifting colour and tone to distinguish between time frames, adding emotional depth to the narrative. The book was shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration in 2023, featured in the White Ravens catalogue the same year, and won the V&A Illustration Award for Children’s Books and the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year Award in 2024. In 2025 his work was selected for the Bologna Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition.

Beyond children’s publishing, Phillips has produced work for a range of clients including The New York Times, Penguin Random House, Ebury Press and the British Council. He works from his studio in Hastings and continues to develop projects across illustration and fine art.