The former children’s laureate from Sussex, who has written more than 200 books including The Snail And The Whale, Room On The Broom, Zog, Stick Man, Tiddler, The Scarecrows’ Wedding and The Highway Rat, is made a dame in the King’s Birthday Honours for services to literature.
Dame Julia, 77, has sold more than 50 million books worldwide and last year supplanted Harry Potter writer JK Rowling as the UK’s all-time top author in terms of units sold.
She said she owes much of her success to her childhood library and the librarian who fostered her love of reading.
“Receiving this honour has been a very happy surprise,” Dame Julia said. “It’s really gratifying to have children’s books recognised in this way.
“I’m so grateful for all the enthusiastic support I’ve had during my career from people in the book world – those in the very many libraries, schools and bookshops I’ve visited over the years, my wonderful illustrators, the publishers and literacy charities I’ve been involved with, and of course my readers.
“Going back further, perhaps my biggest debt of all is to the library which was in walking distance of my childhood home and the librarian who helped me discover the books and authors that I came to love.
“Without that place and person I probably would never have become a children’s writer – let alone a dame.
“So I’m making a plea to the government for more libraries and more librarians in our communities and schools, so that the current generation of children can enjoy all the benefits that reading brings.”
Born in London in 1948, Dame Julia studied drama and French at Bristol University, where she met the man who would later become her husband, medical student Malcolm Donaldson.
Dame Julia Donaldson (Image: Yui Mok/PA Wire)
They went busking together during the holidays and after graduating, Dame Julia worked in publishing and at a local radio station before teaching English in a secondary school.
The couple married in 1972 and would often perform in folk clubs together.
Dame Julia’s big break came when she sent a tape of her songs to the BBC and the corporation asked her to write some more songs for children’s television.
In 1993 the words of one of her songs for television, A Squash And A Squeeze, were made into a book. Six years later, The Gruffalo was published and made Dame Julia a household name.
A Squash And A Squeeze marked the first of her many collaborations with German illustrator Axel Scheffler, with who she has produced more than 20 titles.
Their next book together, Gruffalo Granny, will be released in September and it comes more than 20 years after their last foray into the deep dark wood with 2004’s The Gruffalo’s Child, a sequel to 1999’s best-selling original The Gruffalo.
The news that Dame Julia would be revisiting the character with knobbly knees, turned out toes and a poisonous wart on the end of his nose was first announced in April 2025, when she said she was spurred on to write by a campaign to reverse a decline in children’s reading.
She also said the book will reflect that she is a “big fan of grandmotherhood”.
The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child have sold more than 18 million copies combined and the books have been translated into 115 languages and dialects.
Author Julia Donaldson reading The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child to local families during an event at the British Library in London (Image: Yui Mok/PA Wire)
Dame Julia is also responsible for the hugely successful What The Ladybird Heard books, illustrated by Lydia Monks, as well as the Princess Mirror-Belle fiction series, in addition to poems, plays and songs.
The animations of her books created with Scheffler are now part of the BBC Christmas firmament, starting with The Gruffalo in 2009.
Many of her books have also been adapted for the stage and The Gruffalo production will celebrate its 25th anniversary later this year with a run at the Lyric Theatre in London’s West End.
Meanwhile, the adaptation of The Smartest Giant In Town will return to the West End at Christmas for a run at St Martin’s Theatre.
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