In 1999 a journalist asked a then-unknown author to share her millennium wish. The author, who was 51 years old and had published only one book before, said she hoped her new one, out that year, would become a classic. \u201cBut then straight away I said: \u2018Only joking!\u2019 Because I didn\u2019t want to sound full of myself, and I certainly didn\u2019t think the wish would come true,\u201d she remembers today.<\/p>\n
That author is Julia Donaldson; the\u00a0book she published in 1999 was The Gruffalo; and, as you hardly need telling, her wish did indeed come true. And how. Since its publication, more than 18.2m copies of The Gruffalo and\u00a0its sequel have sold worldwide. The Gruffalo\u2019s Child was published in 2004, and together these tales of the terrible creature with terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws, have\u00a0helped Donaldson to sell more than 50m books in the UK. In 2025 she was named the country\u2019s bestselling author \u2013 across all genres, children\u2019s and adult\u2019s\u00a0\u2013 since records began.<\/p>\n
Now the Gruffalo is making what Donaldson \u2013 who was made a dame in\u00a0June \u2013 confirms will\u00a0be\u00a0his final outing. Gruffalo Granny, out this week, extends the protagonist\u2019s family back a generation. In the new book, the Gruffalo and his daughter are awaiting a visit from Granny Gruffalo. The mouse, who played a pivotal role in the first and second books, is again centre stage; and longtime characters owl, fox and snake are all part of the action too.<\/p>\n
Photograph: \u00a9 Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler<\/p>\n
When we meet in a swish hotel in central London, I\u2019m struck by the similarities between Donaldson and her new character. Her hair, like the Gruffalo Granny\u2019s fur, is grey; in Donaldson\u2019s case, it\u2019s a neat bob, curled under at the ends. She is wearing a blue floral dress and navy shoes, and when she smiles her eyes\u00a0twinkle; but I suspect that, like\u00a0the\u00a0Gruffalo Granny, she has prickles\u00a0that reveal themselves when\u00a0needed. What\u2019s more, she has\u00a0nine grandchildren, aged between\u00a0five and 16. So is she the Gruffalo Granny?<\/p>\n
\u201cNot really,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m the mouse.\u201d The new book, she says, is\u00a0a\u00a0celebration of storytelling. \u201cThe mouse tells stories, then the Gruffalo\u2019s child tells the stories to the granny, and the granny is going to read them\u00a0back again. So there are three storytellers in the book \u2013 everyone apart from the Gruffalo.\u201d<\/p>\n
The inspiration for the book \u2013 without plot-spoiling, though presumably there aren\u2019t many under-sevens reading this \u2013 is Shahrazad from The Arabian Nights, who saves her life by never finishing her stories. \u201cI had that idea and couldn\u2019t think at first what the stories were going to be \u2013 and then I thought, why not use my own stories? It\u00a0won\u2019t be so much work for Axel [Scheffler, the Gruffalo\u2019s illustrator] because he\u2019s already done those pictures.\u201d So the new book is a celebration of many of Donaldson\u2019s earlier works. \u201cIt works well because a\u00a0lot of the people who read this book will already have read\u00a0the ones I refer to \u2013 Room on the\u00a0Broom, Monkey Puzzle, and The\u00a0Snail and the Whale. They\u2019ve all been made into films, and\u00a0they\u2019re quite well known.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cQuite well known\u201d is an under\u00adstatement: Donaldson isn\u2019t just a children\u2019s author, she\u2019s the children\u2019s author. Seeking out a book for my two-year-old grandson from Gatwick south terminal\u2019s WH Smith a few days ago, I noticed every single book on offer in the picture book section of the\u00a0small airport shop was by her. Is\u00a0she concerned that, despite being a\u00a0global champion of children\u2019s literature, she has crowded out potential competitors \u2013 not to mention new talent? \u201cI worry that some other author will stab me in the night,\u201d she jokes. But yes, she is worried. \u201cThat\u2019s why I have a project for the National Year of Reading [to compile] a list of recommendations of picture books not\u00a0by me.\u201d The project is still under wraps; an announcement is expected\u00a0by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
double quotation mark\u00a0\u2018Adult authors\u00a0aren\u2019t asked all the time why libraries are important.\u00a0But children\u2019s writers are seen\u00a0as educators\u2019<\/p>\n
Does the new book connect with what the former current children\u2019s laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce (Donaldson held the post in 2011-13), has said about the power of storytelling in a digital age? \u201cYes, but that follows naturally from my plot line,\u201d she says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t trying\u00a0to remedy the situation \u2013 to be didactic.\u201d The Gruffalo prickles hove into view: she is irked by what she sees\u00a0as the media position that it is the\u00a0responsibility of children\u2019s authors to\u00a0have views on issues to do with children and reading. \u201cAn adult author isn\u2019t asked all the time about why libraries are important.\u201d (Donaldson has, to be fair, done plenty of campaigning to keep libraries open.) It\u00a0sometimes feels to Donaldson that\u00a0we\u2019ve \u201cgone back to Victorian times \u2026 [Children\u2019s authors] are seen as educators.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new Gruffalo book highlights the role of a grandparent; so what kind\u00a0of grandmother is Donaldson? \u201cI\u00a0teach them the card games that my grandmother used to teach me,\u201d she says. \u201cI do jigsaws with them, I play with them, and I read with them. I\u2019m not so keen on changing nappies or doing the school run. \u201d Her grand\u00adchildren also provide ideas: a new book, now being illustrated, is called Baby Grandpa. \u201cThat\u2019s because my youngest grandchild is called Malcolm. When he was born my husband, Malcolm, was over the moon, and they asked the next one up,\u00a0Rita, who was only 18 months, to\u00a0do a video saying \u2018Baby Malcolm\u2019, but instead of that she said \u2018Baby Grandpa\u2019. And that\u2019s such a\u00a0good title for a book: I\u2019ve written it in\u00a0prose \u2013 about a grandpa and a baby with the same name.\u201d Baby Malcolm, she says, \u201cwill probably be about seven\u00a0when it comes out\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sadly, Grandpa Malcolm didn\u2019t live to see the book published: a consultant paediatrician based for much of his career in Glasgow, he died in 2024, aged 75. Losing him has been tough \u2013 \u201cthe fabric of your life totally changes\u201d \u2013 but she had already faced tragedy with the death of their son Hamish, who had schizoaffective disorder and took his own life in 2003, aged 25. She doesn\u2019t want to say much about it, she says, \u201cbut the thing is it wasn\u2019t just the loss of a child, it was all the other things we faced because of what he was like \u2013 it was very hard times before he died\u201d. His death was \u201cdevastating\u201d, but living through the aftermath has helped her cope with losing Malcolm. \u201cI know he\u2019d be very proud of not just me but the boys [their other sons are Alastair and Jerry], who now play the guitars on the shows which he would have done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Illustration undefined: Copyright Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler – Macmillan Children\u2019s Books<\/p>\n
Ah, the shows: look online and you\u2019ll find charming videos of Julia and Malcolm taking part in theatre performances and recording sessions, singing songs<\/a> about the Gruffalo and her other stories. Family members joined in, including her sons, grandchildren and her great-niece Lola\u00a0Young<\/a>, now one of the UK\u2019s most successful singer-songwriters, whose 2024 single Messy reached No 1 in six countries and has been streamed more than a billion times. \u201cSome people have said she\u2019s a nepo baby but that\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d says Donaldson. \u201cI\u2019m as nepotistic as anyone. If I could have pulled any strings I would have done. But there\u2019s no relationship whatsoever between the world of rock and pop music and the world of children\u2019s books.\u201d Donaldson lives in Sussex these days, and when Young played in\u00a0Brighton she was in the audience. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of her,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
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