Liz Anelli is an author/illustrator. She was born in Essex, England and has been scribbling away since she could first hold a pencil. She began by drawing endless stories, horses, whilst lying on the dining-room carpet. Now she generally draws sitting at a desk – but she is sometimes up a tall tower, in a field or sitting on a bus. She is mad keen on collecting stuff and has dozens of sketchbooks full of drawings, signs, tickets, ice cream wrappers, bus routes and jotted down bits of conversation.
Liz makes pictures using collage and printmaking as well as paint and pencils, collecting ephemera on her many travels to weave into stories. She delights in complex city scenes and is well known for her large scale illustrated maps. But most of all she loves to draw – any time, anywhere. Starting with early years spent drawing on the backs of her dad’s electrical circuit diagram papers she graduated to documenting the dinosaurs at London’s Natural History Museum and now has a ceiling-high stack of sketchbooks full of inspirations from around the world. Her passion for drawing has contributed to international research with the British Council and Big Draw.
Liz now lives in Newcastle, Australia with her husband Mario.
She has been extensively recognised for her illustrations with awards by CBCA, ASO, Illustrators Australia, Australian Society of Authors & May Gibbs Trust Fellowships. Desert Lake (Walker Books) shortlisted NSW Premiers Award 2017, One Photo (Penguin Random House) and Ten Pound Pom (Blackdog Books) shortlisted CBCA Picture Book of The Year in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Liz is a member of SCWBI, CBCA and Board Director of ASA. She regularly delivers talks and workshops with schools and contributes to festivals and conferences as well as judging and reviewing picture books for CBCA.
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Liz's latest picture books are, Dry to Dry written by Pamela Freeman - the latest in Walker Books Nature Story Series and The Biscuit Maker written by Sue Lawson and also published by Walker Books. Both books are noted in CBCA Notables this year. Dry to Dry is reviewed in the August 2020 Edition of Magpies - see Links
Watch Liz in How to illustrate a picture book - Dry to Dry:
Testimonials
Liz was very enthusiastic and a pleasure to work with. She engaged the children very well and they all enjoyed the session immensely. We received nothing but positive feedback from parents, wanting to know more about Liz and her work.
Burdekin Library - May 2020Very interesting, well presented, engaging workshop for children
Lake Mac Libraries - August 2018
The Biscuit Maker
Dry to Dry - The Seasons of Kakadu
Maddie's First Day
Grace and Katie
Ten Pound Pom
Desert Lake
One Photo
Howzat
Featured Speakers
Stop Press
Choose Your Own Adventure!
To tie in with the 2025 Book Week theme, ‘Book an Adventure’, Dave Lowe has adapted his popular ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ workshop, as a ‘presentation’-style 45- / 60-minute session for large groups of students, from Years 3 to 8. In this fun, highly-interactive session, Dave will share insights into ideas-generation and plotting, and give each student a story template, as well as all the tips and tricks they’ll need to make their own short ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’-style book that they can take home and try out on friends and family.
New Releases See all books
Touring Speakers See all tour dates
| Speaker | Location | Tour dates | Book now |
|---|---|---|---|
Gold Coast / Brisbane | 14 Jul - 24 Jul 2025 | ||
Brisbane | 23 Jul - 25 Jul 2025 | ||
Brisbane | 28 Jul - 01 Aug 2025 | ||
Brisbane | 01 Aug - 09 Sep 2025 | ||
Brisbane / Gold Coast | 04 Aug - 08 Aug 2025 |
What people are saying
Jenni Cargill is an enchanting storyteller who shares stories from around the world with energy, style and verve. Jenni's capable manner ensures children K-6 are enthralled with her performance. She sprinkles music, wonderful acting and different voices through her performances. Highly entertaining and worthwhile
Susy was fantastic!! Her talk / workshop was great and the kids really enjoyed it. She was really enthusiastic, easy-going, relaxed and fun and I would certainly recommend her to any school. In fact, I'd like to have a "Festival of Favourites" and she'd be on the top of my list to get back again.
...Kirsty Eagar was great. The girls, especially in year 11, really enjoyed listening to her. I would definitely recommend her as an inspirational speaker especially for students year 10 and above.
Jenny Wang helped us kick off a week long celebration of learning as part of Catholic Week activities at Jubilee Primary. With Jenny's expertise, all students successfully created their own manga characters, inspiring some students to submit art work for the school's mini Art Show. Jenny's own passion for using animation to spread positive community messages could be a great starter for students building their own community message.
Inspirational, extremely open to students questions, flexible to school routine, excellent speaker.
Peter's workshop was, without a doubt, the highlight of our library year! We already have plans to invite Peter back for a follow-up workshop in the near future. I also wanted to thank you for making Peter available to schools through Speakers Ink.
We just had Anne E Stewart visit for our grade 3s and 4s at Eltham North Primary School. She was absolutely fantastic! The children and staff alike were mesmerised by her story telling and richness of stories. Please pass on our greatest thanks to her for such an inspiring and wonderful gift.
Gabriel passed on his vast knowledge and professional experience to students through interactive activities that focused on the process of designing a character, the tools in creating a page spread, portraying the emotional body language of characters and training the eye in composition. Gabriel’s presentation methods were engaging, motivational and inspirational.
I can always rely on Speakers Ink to do all the behind the scenes organisation in terms of securing a speaker.
"Shannon provided such a great perspective on how to write in this particular genre (kids & picturebooks), as I normally write fiction drama. Great tips and great knowledge." "Loved Shannon's workshop. I ended up making sure that a picture book will be my next project!" "Shannon was very honest in her presentation - she provided many examples of what to look for in a good picture book and suggestions for writing. She was very generous with her advice. A fantastic presentation!" "Great f [...]
Thanks for organizing the author talk yesterday. Our girls had a lovely time and left feeling quite inspired about writing. I really appreciated the opportunity to attend.