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Niki Daly’s Biography
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1946 |
Born in Cape
Town on 13 June 1946. Educated at
Observatory Boys Junior School and Observatory High School. Art and music were not offered as school subjects,
so Niki drew,painted and
made music at home, encouraged by his family. |
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1962 |
Called up for
nine months National Service |
|
1963 |
Worked as a
clerk while attending art classes at night school |
|
1964 |
Entered Cape Technikon Art School as a full time student.Started
performing and recording as singer/songwriter |
|
1966 |
Received
National Diploma in Art and Design |
|
1967 |
Worked as
`junior visualiser’ with Quadrant International
Advertising Agency.Niki says that the Practice of
‘rendering’ pictures for ads gave him excellent drawing skills. |
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1969 |
Landed recording
contract with CBS Record Company, moved to London |
|
1970 |
Wrote songs and
recorded an album Stories for Grown-up
Children |
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1973 |
Married Jude,
who had joined him from Cape Town |
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1976 |
Worked as
designer for Stafford Winfield &
Cook Agency in London |
|
1977 |
Became a self-employed illustrator, doing mainly black and white
drawings for Mary Glasgow, an educational publisher. Niki also taught part-time at the Art and Design Department, East Ham
College of Technology |
|
1978 |
Published first
book: The little girl who lived down
the road, for which he was awarded the British Arts Council Illustration
Award |
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1979 |
Joseph, first
son, born |
|
1980 |
Niki, Jude and
eighteen-month-old Joseph return to Cape Town Freelanced as editorial
illustrator and taught art and design at The Foundation School of Arts and
Crafts. |
|
1982 |
Leo, second son,
born. Niki appointed as head of design at Stellenbosch University. Recorded
album Living in the suburbs |
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1986 |
Not so fast Songololo published; awarded Katrine Harries Award
for illustration (South Africa) and the Parents’ Choice award for literature
(USA) |
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1989 |
Developed Songololo Books, a children’s book division of David
Philip Publishers |
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1990 |
Whitey in love recorded
Travelled to the USA to work on Video version of Not so Fast Songololo with Weston Woods
Studios in Connecticut |
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1992 |
Ran writing and
illustration workshops which facilitated the work of other writer and
illustrator teams |
|
1992 |
Visited Italy,
spending time in Rome and Florence before going on to Bologna to attend the
Bologna Book Fair. Stopped over in London |
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1993 |
Workshopped and art
directed a series of books for the READ organisation;
a project that resulted in a small suitcase library aimed at children in
rural communities. |
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1994 |
Began to work
with South African children’s book writer and illustrator, Joan Rankin,
helping to establish her work in the UK, Europe and USA. |
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1996 |
Visited Italy to
attend the Bologna Book Fair and to spend a week in Venice doing research for
Bravo! Zan Angelo. Stopped over in London. |
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1998 |
Attended the Zimbabwe
International Book Fair to present a paper “Fantasy and Reality in Children’s
Picture Books” |
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2000 |
Travelled to Europe to present a paper entitled “Out of my skin” at
the Images of the World Conference, Copenhagen and Reading Pictures
Conference at Homerton College, Cambridge |
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2003 |
Went on a Songololo Book Tour of Gauteng to
promote his lists for Tafelberg Publishers, New
Africa Books and his list for Frances Lincoln (distributed in South Africa by
Pan MacMillan). Appeared on the SABC Breakfast Show and SABC Afternoon Radio. |
|
2004 |
Went to the UK and Italy with Jude Daly on a promotional tour for
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books. Attended the Bologna Book Fair.
Visited Venice. Presented paper “From Songololo to Jamela” at the Book Federation Conference, Birmingham and
later in the year at the IBBY Conference in Cape Town. |
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2005 |
Started multi-media presentation of books before audiences of children Extended and developed computer aided graphics – scanning in hand drawn
art and colouring and patterning on the computer. |
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2006 |
Promotion of
Zanzibar Road – first book to be published in twelve African languages |
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2007 |
Travelled to Lund, Sweden to give workshops and talks at Literalund Festival.
Ran a PRAESA picture book workshop with Carol Bloch attended by
participants across Africa. |
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2008 |
Travelled to Accra, Ghana to run a writers and illustrators workshop
for the Osu Library Fund. |
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2009 |
Visited
schools. Acted as patron for the
Darling Children’s Festival where I ran workshops for children and did
readings. |
|
2010 |
Plans to spend more time in his studio this year and work! |
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2011 |
Moved to Kleinmond, a small seaside town 150 kilometers from Cape
Town |
