Dixie O'Day: In The Fast Lane - Couverture souple

"The first in a witty and beautifully designed series for emerging readers... Vulliamy’s crisp, lively images – black and white, with a single colour on every page, plus diagrams and comical details – deserve to be savoured" (Nicolette Jones The Sunday Times)

"Toad of Toad Hall would enjoy this as bedtime reading... Vulliamy’s perky drawings are as accessible as a superior comic and guaranteed, alongside Hughes’s racey narrative, to get young readers behind the wheel" (Observer)

"This collaboration is one that many a children’s literature enthusiast has been hoping for and awaiting with great trepidation for a long, long time. It does not disappoint, for Dixie O’Day in the Fast Lane is a gorgeous little book. Visually, the book is stunning. The design of the book is also immaculate and so attractive...
This feast of beautifully nostalgic merriment will definitely be a winner with adults, but Dixie O’Day in the Fast Lane is first and foremost a cleverly written chapter book for newly independent readers...
Dixie O’Day in the Fast Lane is a little book to truly treasure, which has all the ingredients to become a firm favourite with little readers." (Library Mice blog)

"This is perfect for new readers with fun and lively illustrations punctuating the story throughout" (The Bookseller)

"Children of this age will chuckle at the first of a series by mother and daughter duo Shirley Hughes and Clara Vulliamy... it stars friends Dixie O'Day and his sidekick Percy. Daring Dixie loves custard creams, watching cookery programmes and driving his sports car to the seaside with Percy. The book also includes maps and a list of games to play on car journeys, just the ticket for the festive season." (Emma Lee-Potter Daily Express)

Shirley Hughes (Author)
Shirley was born in West Kirby, near Liverpool, and studied fashion and dress design at Liverpool Art School, before continuing her studies at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford. She then embarked on a career as a freelance illustrator in London, where she still lives today. She illustrated other writers' work, including Noel Streatfeild, Alison Uttley, Ian Seraillier, Margaret Mahy and notably Dorothy Edwards's My Naughty Little Sister series.

Shirley began to write and draw her own picture books when her children were young. Her first book - Lucy and Tom's Day - was published in 1960, and she followed it with, among others, Dogger and the Alfie series.

Shirley Hughes has won the Other Award, the Eleanor Farjeon Award, and the Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration twice, for Dogger in 1977 and for Ella's Big Chance in 2003. In 2007 Dogger was voted the public's favourite Greenaway winner of all time. Shirley received an OBE in 1999 for services to Children's Literature, and a CBE in 2017. She is the first recipient of Booktrust's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Clara Vulliamy (Illustrator)
Clara was born in Notting Hill, and studied at Chelsea School of Art, The Ruskin in Oxford, and The Royal Academy. She began her career by doing illustrations in newspapers and magazines, and started doing books for children when she had children of her own. Clara lives in Twickenham with her husband and two grown-up children.