Jason Cockcroft author page

Jason Cockcroft biography

Jason Cockcroft is a children’s author and illustrator who was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and grew up in Leeds, West Yorkshire. He studied illustration at Falmouth School of Art, graduating in 1994, and has illustrated more than sixty books for publishers in the UK and internationally. His work includes picture books, children’s fiction, young adult novels and book cover illustrations.

Cockcroft won the inaugural Blue Peter Book Award in 2000 for his illustrations in A Pilgrim’s Progress, Geraldine McCaughrean’s retelling of John Bunyan’s novel, published by Hodder Children’s Books. He also illustrated three of the original UK covers for J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, including Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. His other illustration credits include books by Michael Morpurgo, Martin Waddell, Melvin Burgess and Berlie Doherty.

His picture books include Night Walk, published by Walker Books, and A Song of Sun and Sky, published by Henry Holt. He has also illustrated Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell and the Bad Mermaids series by Sibéal Pounder, published by Bloomsbury.

Cockcroft’s debut young adult novel, We Were Wolves, was published by Andersen Press in May 2021. Illustrated by the author, it follows a boy living alone in woodland while his father is in prison, with danger approaching from people searching for stolen money. The novel was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal and nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal. His second novel, Running with Horses, published by Andersen Press in July 2022, follows two boys whose friendship develops against a background of grief, crime and a mysterious white horse.

Cockcroft also illustrated The Pine-Marten Promise by Liz Flanagan, the first book in the Wild Watchers series from Fox & Ink Books, scheduled for publication in 2027. The story follows eleven-year-old Charlie, who develops an unusual connection with a pine marten and attempts to protect its threatened woodland habitat. In March 2024, Cockcroft’s novel Running with Horses won the York Book Award, voted for by pupils from ten secondary schools.