Mark Bradley author page

Mark Bradley biography

Mark Bradley is a British comic writer and artist and the creator of the Bumble and Snug graphic novel series for children. Before becoming a published author, he worked for the probation service for many years. Bradley has said that this experience showed him the importance of emotional literacy, an idea that became central to his books.

Bumble and Snug began as characters Bradley drew in the margins while working on other projects. He later shared them online before developing them into a book series published by Hodder Children’s Books. The characters are Bugbops, small monsters whose adventures explore emotions through friendship, humour and fantasy.

The first book, Bumble and Snug and the Angry Pirates, was published in 2021. It follows the two friends after a picnic turns into an adventure involving lost treasure, angry pirates and a giant octopus. The book was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2022.

Bradley followed it with Bumble and Snug and the Excited Unicorn in 2022, Bumble and Snug and the Shy Ghost in 2023 and Bumble and Snug and the Jealous Giants in 2024. Each is a full-colour graphic novel in which an adventure is built around a particular emotion or social situation. Bumble and Snug and the Excited Unicorn was shortlisted for The Week Junior Children’s Book of the Year: Illustrated in 2023.

The fifth book in the series, Bumble and Snug and the Worried Dragons, was published by Hodder Children’s Books on 3 July 2025 and follows the friends as they try to reunite a group of young dragons with their worried parents.