Meet the author

Mark Beech.

Illustrator · United Kingdom

Mark Beech: British illustrator behind Terry Pratchett's children's short-story collections (Dragons at Crumbling Castle, The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner) — loose, Blake-adjacent line work for whimsical illustrated chapter books, ages 7–10.

Mark Beech is a British illustrator best known as the visual partner for Terry Pratchett's children's short-story collections (Dragons at Crumbling Castle, The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner, Tales of Time and Space, Tales of Beasts and Bugs, The Time-travelling Caveman) and for a range of other illustrated chapter books and middle-grade titles. Beech's style is loose, slightly Quentin-Blake-adjacent, energetic line work, sketchy detail, bright spot colour, well suited to Pratchett's whimsy and to the wider British illustrated-chapter-book tradition. He works almost exclusively as illustrator rather than writer. A reliable visual signal of well-crafted, whimsical illustrated chapter books for ages 7–10.