Jan Michał Pieńkowski is a Polish-British author of children's books—as illustrator, as writer, and as designer of movable books. He has also designed for the theatre. For his contribution as a children's illustrator he was UK nominee in 1982 and again in 2008 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. WorldCat reports that Pieńkowski's work most widely held in participating libraries is Christmas, the King James Version, a 24-page picture book that "ses the words of the Gospels of Luke and Matthew to present the story of the birth of Jesus."
Biography
Jan Pieńkowski was born in Warsaw, Poland. He was 3 when the September 1939 invasion of Poland, a joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, opened World War II in Europe. During the war, the Pieńkowskis moved about the continent; they settled in Herefordshire, England, in 1946, where Pieńkowski attended Lucton School. Meanwhile, Jan had illustrated his first book at the age of eight, as a present for his father. Pieńkowski attended the Cardinal Vaughan School in London and later read English Classics at King's College, Cambridge. After leaving university he founded the Gallery Five greeting cards company. He began illustrating children's books in spare time but soon found it taking all his time. In 1968 Pieńkowski began working with children's authorJoan Aiken. He won the annual Kate Greenaway Medal for their 1971 book, The KingdomUnder the Sea and other stories, eleven "fairy tales from Eastern Europe and Russia" retold by Aiken. That award by the Library Association recognised the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. In retrospect the librarians call it "brilliantly illustrated in a highly original and recognisable silhouette style". One year earlier he had been one of three Greenaway runners up for The Golden Bird, written by Edith Brill. Pieńkowski is probably best known for illustrating the Meg and Mog books written by Helen Nicoll, and for his pop-up books including Haunted House, Robot, Dinner Time, Good Night and 17 others. Haunted House earned Pieńkowski his second Greenaway Medal. The librarians describe it as "the house of petrifying pop-ups". The pop-up book was so successful that Intervisual Books Inc. reproduced the book as part of its 1992 Annual Report. The report noted "Haunted House was first published in 1979, and has sold 1,083,366 copies, in 13 languages, to nearly 30 countries worldwide." Pieńkowski has had a lifelong interest in stage design. He was commissioned to provide designs for Theatre de Complicite, Beauty and the Beast for the Royal Ballet, and Sleeping Beauty at Disneyland Paris. In December 2008 he was a guest on Private Passions, a biographic music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3. Published episode notes include the observation that "is musical choices, which all have strong personal resonances, reflect his Polish background as well as his love of both Italy and England." Recordings of two Polish numbers led the program: "Infant holy, infant lowly", a traditional Christmas Carol, and Chopin's so-called Military Polonaise. In 2019, Pienkowski was awarded with the Booktrust's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Private life
In October 2009 he was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. During the programme Pieńkowski discussed his childhood spent roaming Europe, his dead infant sister, his bipolarity and his collection of discarded garments. He also talked about his 40-year relationship with his collaborator and civil partner, David Walser, whom he met in a pub on the Kings Road in West London. They contracted their partnership in Richmond on the first day this was possible in 2005. Pieńkowski lives and works in Barnes, London, where he is a patron of the Barnes Literary Society.
