Illustrations for the set design of The Witches, Cotswold Players Tracy Spiers.jpg

TRACY SPIERS

Tracy Spiers is an illustrator and writer, exploring the historical heritage and identity of places in a playful, engaging way. She started her career as cub reporter for a local newspaper in 1987, moved into radio and television broadcasting for the BBC and later feature writing for magazines, whilst gaining a first-class BA (Hons) and MA (Distinction) in illustration. She now combines the two disciplines and has published several history books for children and inspiring devotional journals for adults.

Small with a big imagination, Tracy enjoys using her fun colourful approach to turn ordinary objects and scenarios into something uplifting and amusing. 

One of her latest projects involved running workshops for 38 schools in St. Helens, Merseyside and producing an innovative history workbook for primary-aged children, called ‘The Canary Sings’, published in December 2020. She spent the first lockdown, daily illustrating and writing to encourage folk on social media platforms, resulting in a successful 265-page published hardback book, ‘Taking a Leaf out of the Good Book,’ which is already on its second run. In Lockdown 2, she produced a ‘Laugh through Lockdown’ series of picture puns and during the recent Lockdown Tracy started a PhD in art and design, researching the value of playfulness, which she sees as an important antidote to the current anxiety many are feeling as a result of COVID-19.  

A Modern Mrs Bennet, Tracy lives in Gloucestershire with her husband Rog and their five daughters. She can often be found running along canal and cycle paths.