Errol McLeary grew up in Auckland and has been a magazine designer, a television designer, an art director at an advertising agency and a newspaper illustrator and cartoonist with the NZ Herald, as well as doing freelance work. Errol then set up a graphic design business, eventually concentrating on book design, but it was always his dream to illustrate, and over the years he has become more interested in illustrating his own books, using traditional techniques. He now lives on the Gold Coast practising and teaching children's book illustration, using his zany sense of humour to bring his bright watercolour artwork to life.