Mistakes in the Background – Laura Dockrill

Feast your eyes on a treasury of words and illustrations from one of the most exciting young talents around, recently voted by The Times as one of the top ten literary talents of 2008.Enter the weird and wonderful world of Laura Dockrill …I draw like a left-handed baby, I can hardly spell my own name and watching me use a glue-stick is a bit like watching a large bear trying to ram his own head into a pocket-sized cat-flap …no, really.But once the book is finished, when I can see the pages coming together, getting thicker and thicker, detailed and covered with stories and my imagination recorded on pages …everything at last makes sense (to me at least).I did this because I have got things to say. I've got pictures I want you to see and characters I want you to meet – the crying ice-skating boy, the Rolf Harris obsessive, the rude girl in McDonalds with the chocolate milkshake and the try-hard Mighty Boosh watching mum.I don't keep a diary. I think they’re crap.But this is much more than a diary. This is my map.