Mark Simon Burgess was born in Chislehurst on 26 April 1957 to John Frederick Orchard Burgess and Mona Goswell. He was the third child among his four siblings. He attended boarding school at Christ's Hospital in Sussex, England from 1968-74 in the Middleton B house. In 1975, Burgess began studying at the Slade School of Fine Art of the University College London. Graduating from there with a B.A. in Fine Art in 1979, he began working as a freelance author and illustrator of children's books, magazines and greetings cards. He also briefly worked at the London Zoo as well as in a library in Cambridge. The first book Burgess illustrated is Martin Waddell Harriet and the Crocodiles, published in 1983. He currently lives in Taunton, Somerset and is married to Malawi-born artist Rosemary Benson, who is his senior by 9 years and who also attended the Slade School of Art from 1977 to 1979.
Style
While Burgess has written and illustrated various books in his own style, his ability to reproduce the style of other artists has been noted on more than one occasion. For example, the book Dogs' Night, by Meredith Hooper, begun with Allan Curless as the illustrator. However, since Curless died before its completion, Burgess finished the job such "that most readers would be hard-pressed to identify which artist did which pictures", according to Lauren P. Gattilia for Education World. Burgess also illustrated Return to the Hundred Acre Wood in the style of E. H. Shepard, whose work he admired. When speaking of his work on that book, Burgess said:
Reception
As a writer
Chloe Spooner from The Bookbag praised Burgess' Where Teddy BearsCome From writing, "The author Mark Burgess has created a wonderful world for children here in this book, and the extra dash of Christmas magic just makes an already lovely story all the more charming."
As an illustrator
Burgess shared a 2002 Blue HenBook Award in the Picture Book Winner category for his and Allan Curless' illustrations in Dogs' Night. Burgess' illustration of Return to the Hundred Acre Wood in particular received good reviews in The Sunday Times as well as in Fantasy Book Review and Kidsreads.com. In The Times, Ann Thwaite wrote, "With the new book, Burgess seems indispensable." Jana Siciliano of Kidsreads.com, wrote: However, Susan Perren, children's book columnist of The Globe and Mail, had reservations on the drawings found in Return to the Hundred Acre Wood. Perren wrote, "This bad-tempered donkey might say, too, that Mark Burgess, as good an illustrator as he might be, is no Ernest Shepherd, and anyway, where are all those lovely line drawings we enjoyed so much in the original?" Burgess also illustrated the 2016 authorised sequel to Winnie-the-Pooh, The Best Bear in All the World and the 90th anniversary special Winnie-the-Pooh Meets the Queen.
