From her studio in Cheshire, England, Valerie creates her highly intricate and delicate paintings, many of which reflect the beauty found in the natural habitats, hedgerows and gardens around her home.

Valerie’s work has been seen on many products including greetings cards, calendars, stationery, tableware, fabrics, wallpapers and collectable figurines but she is perhaps best known for her book illustration.

In 1978 Valerie began to produce artwork for a greeting card company called Camden Graphics Ltd., who found that the detailed and decorative nature of Valerie’s work translated well onto stationery. This relationship proved to be very long lasting and many of her designs began to appear in the high street. This exposure, in turn, lead to an invitation by Blackie children’s books to illustrate a set of board books.

In the early 80’s her first four children’s books were published by Blackie and Son Ltd. , soon to be followed by many others. Amongst her most popular children’s titles is “White is the Moon”, which was translated into several languages. It was voted one of the top ten picture books for children in the eighth annual competition by Red Book magazine (USA). The film rights where also bought by a television production company and an animated version of the book was featured on “Playbus”, an educational children’s television programme. The Acorn’s Story was shortlisted for the Sir Peter Kent conservation prize. The original artwork from these picture books was chosen for the prestigious “Illustrators” annual exhibition at Chris Beetles Gallery in London.

In addition to her children’s books, Valerie has established herself within the gift book arena. Her in-depth understanding of what appeals in the market place has lead to many successful gift books such as the best selling “Illustrated Address Book” and “A Book of Days”. These two titles became the best selling books on the Blackie list for several years running. “Our Baby’s Album” and “A Year of Prayers” also proved popular especially in North America.

Valerie started to license her work in the late 90’s and has a licensing portfolio of over 300 images. Working both independently and directly with art editors she has licensed her art onto many different products including stationery, calendars, framed prints, needlecraft kits, ceramics, and home accents.

She is married to an advanced skills English teacher and they have two sons.