Mike Smith graduated with distinction from the MA Children's Book Illustration course at Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University. He won the illustrious Macmillan Prize for Children's Picture Book Illustration in 2010, having been a runner-up the year before. When he was a child, Mike's favourite illustrators were Herge, Charles Schultz and Richard Scarry, all of whom still influence his work today. Mike and his partner Caroline lived on a canal boat in Cambridge for seven years, but they have swapped their boat for a house and now live happily in Wales with their two sons and dogs. The Hundred Decker Bus is Mike's debut picture book.