Charles van Sandwyk was born in South Africa with a paintbrush in each hand and a chocolate in his mouth. He moved to Canada with his family as a young lad and graduated from the Capilano College School of Art and Design in 1986. In that same year, he packed a small satchel with paints and books and travelled to the South Pacific, where he spent the next ten years in a small grass hut on a remote island in Fiji. Shuttered away from the world, Charles honed his skills in drawing, painting, and writing in the style of Mystic Realism. His first self-published book appeared when he was just 20, and won a national award. Since then his work has been archived by the National Library of Canada and treasured by private collectors across the world. Nearly 100 books later, his preferred themes range from poetry and philosophy, to children's adventures and Fairy reveries.He has illustrated The Wind In The Willows and Alice In Wonderland for The Folio Society, and is currently writing and illustrating his own fantasy novel, The Gnome King. Charles is thrilled to be working with Phil Perry and Daisy Kemp. Together they are masterminding exciting literary projects.