Horrid Henry artist Tony Ross named UK libraries' most borrowed illustrator

In the first ranking of its kind, the Public Lending Right showed Ross clocking up more than 1m loans last year

Tony Ross, whose images of the naughty prankster Horrid Henry and the ragamuffin Little Princess are instantly recognisable to children up and down the country, has been named as the most borrowed illustrator from the UK’s public libraries.

Ross, who illustrates Francesca Simon’s Horrid Henry books and writes the Little Princess titles, came in ahead of names including Quentin Blake and Lauren Child and The Gruffalo’s Axel Scheffler to top the first ever ranking of illustrators from Public Lending Right (PLR). Ross, who also illustrates David Walliams’s bestselling titles and estimates that he has written or illustrated at least 1,000 books, saw his titles borrowed more than 1m times from the UK’s public libraries over the last year. He described himself as “surprised, proud, and delighted” at the result.

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