Published in 2012, Oh No, George! has since become a children's classic. Written and illustrated by Dubliner Chris Haughton, and inspired by an incident involving his family's childhood pet, the picture book finds the canine George faced with the temptation of a rather lush looking cake. Can he resist?

A graphic designer with an interest in Fair Trade products, Chris' first book was 2010's A Bit Lost, in which a young owl found themselves lost in a forest after falling from their nest. The book picked up several major awards, including The Booktrust Best New Illustrators Award and AOI Best of British Illustration Gold Prize 2010 (Childrens’ Book Category).

He's since published several more acclaimed picture books that combine simple yet accessible storytelling with bold collage-like colourful illustrations, including Shh! We Have A Plan, Don't Worry Little Crab, and Goodnight Everyone.

To coincide with the tenth anniversary of Oh No, George!, Walker Books have just published a special edition, while Gloucestershire-based theatre company Can't Sit Still are touring a stage adaptation - which visits Coventry's Warwick Arts Centre from April 23-24, 2022.

Chris takes time out preparing for his next book to chat to What's On.

Oh No, George! isn't the first theatre adaption of one of your books, is it?

The first book that was turned into a play was A Bit Lost, which was in Swedish. Then Shh! was done in Northern Ireland. That did very well and toured the UK, USA and China. I saw it in Belfast. That was interesting, there’s literally no words in it, only ‘shhh…’, so it was completely done in mime. Each [stage production] has brought something new to it, and it was fascinating what they bought out, and how differently you can tell the story.

When/where did you start Oh No, George!?

Before I was doing picture books I was involved in Fair Trade. I’m still involved with Fair Trade organisations, but I was full-time back then. I took eight months off and lived in Kathmandu and worked with The People Tree - designed bags. I’d been working with them for many years, but never been over. My first book did very well so I could go over, that was 2010/2011. While I was there I basically finished a large part of George.

Did you study illustration?

I studied graphic design, and people like Saul Bass, those sorts of poster designs, ‘real’ graphic design. That’s what I was doing while I was in college. I loved doing posters and flyers, but I also loved drawings, and tried to find a balance. At one point I did two types of work – drawing and graphic design – and managed to combine the two into one style. In college, I was working for the Irish fashion magazine d’Side, and they’d get celebrities to write these pieces which I’d do caricatures for, which was very much black and white illustration. But then then became more colourful as they developed.

Your books have a very distinctive visual style, which extends to using a very distinctive typeface for the text.

The first book - the 'owl book' - was kind of just images, the whole story was told through pictures, but there were these little exclamations – Oh oh! / bump bump bump! - so I needed something that worked within the illustrations. With a proper typeface, they had to be integrated, but they looked too sharp, so I adapted a typeface. After than, the book became very successful and my publisher said ‘what’s next?’ and we kept the same typeface and a similar set-up for the second book, which was Oh No, George!

How do you approach a story? Can you give us an example?

With the baby owl [A Bit Lost], they fall out of the nest – which they do all the time – land in the middle of the forest, and they’re lost. It’s simple situation that’s relatable for a very young child [which] I’m making more visual, with animals. We are so similar to animals, we have the same fears, the same reoccupations, we get lost or, like in George, we do the wrong thing and feel guilty about it. Everyone who has ever had a dog knows that they feel that, they feel guilty, you can see it when you come in the room and they’ve done something – looking sheepish.

You've just completed a new book for publication later this year - Well Done, Mummy Penguin. Can you tell us a bit about it?

It’s about a penguin family and it’s inspired by watching some David Attenborough over lockdown. I was working on a book about a big bad wolf, and it’s always very tricky to get the story right. Then I saw this scene from a documentary, just one scene, and thought that’s brilliant! All I’d need to do is add some dialogue and that’s it! It’s about a baby penguin and daddy penguin and the mother, who’s gone off to catch fish. The baby’s really nervous, waiting for mummy. There are elephant seals lying on the beach and the penguin is trying to sneak by, and she falls into the water, but manages to get out.

Can’t Sit Still’s Oh No, George! visits Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 April 2022. For tickets and details, see: warwickartscentre.co.uk 

The 10th anniversary edition of Oh No, George! is out now via Walker Books.