Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94) was born into a famous Scottish engineering family and himself trained as an engineer and then as a lawyer. However, his first love was always writing. In 1880 he married an American divorcee, Fanny Osbourne, and it was his stepson Lloyd Osbourne’s request for a good story” that inspired him to begin perhaps his most famous work: Treasure Island. His first work of fiction, Treasure Island was followed by many other stories and poems, including Kidnapped (1886), The strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885). All true classics, his works are as well-loved today as they were over a century ago. John Lawrence is a highly respected artist, twice recipient of the Francis Williams Book Illustration Award. He has illustrated classic works by Daniel Defoe and Chaucer, and modern texts by authors such as Roald Dahl, as well as The Kingfisher Treasury of Five-Minute Stories. John Lawrence lives in Cambridge.