Meet the author

Al Murphy.

Writer & illustrator · United Kingdom

Al Murphy: author-illustrator whose daft, gag-packed debut A Duck Called Brian hides a clever search-and-find game inside a laugh-out-loud story about friendship.

Al Murphy is a British author-illustrator and commercial artist who graduated from Liverpool School of Art in 1999 and has since worked with clients from the BBC to MTV. His debut children's book, A Duck Called Brian, published by Scholastic, is a gloriously daft search-and-find picture book about a bright blue duck hunting for his best friend Gregory, with a clever running joke: eagle-eyed readers can always spot Gregory in the background, forever heading off to his next adventure just as Brian looks the other way. Loud, silly and packed with visual gags, it is a laugh-out-loud read-together that rewards a second and third look. A joyfully absurd picture book about friendship, breakfast and always just missing each other, pitched squarely at three-to-seven-year-olds who love to giggle.