Giles Andreae

Giles Andreae (born 16 March 1966) is a British artist, poet and greeting card writer, creator of the "Purple Ronnie" and "Edward Monkton" series.

As a child Andreae went to Eton College where he was best friends with David Cameron. He then went on to Oxford University (Worcester College, 1985 – 88). Andreae completed his degree under difficult circumstances as he developed Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph glands, and began an intensive course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy the day before his final exams began. He managed to sit some of his papers, and was awarded an upper second class degree. Giles lives with his wife Victoria, a children’s clothes designer, in South Oxfordshire. He also has a holiday home on the north coast of Cornwall. Giles and Victoria have four children: Flinn, twins – Freya and Nat – and Jackson. One of his books is Princess Pearl.

In 2006 Andreae worked alongside Blunderbus Theatre Company (Nottinghamshire) to adapt his story Giraffes Can't Dance to bring it to stage. The company toured this story across the UK.

Purple Ronnie is a cartoon character used in greetings cards, T-shirts and other merchandise. Drawn in a simple stick man style with a smiley face and a large oval body, Ronnie is usually shown as a comic poet, the cartoons' rhyming captions being written in a simple style and including mild taboo language.

Purple Ronnie cards first came to the market in about 1987, published by Statics Ltd. The character was later used in an advertising campaign for the soft drink Vimto.

Under the name of Edward Monkton, Andreae has created several cartoons used on cards and other merchandise, including "A Lovely Love Story" and "The Lady and the Chocolate". Among his best-loved characters are "The Pig of Happiness", the "Penguin of Death" and "Zen Dog".

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