Neil Packer was born in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, the elder son of John Packer, who worked for BP, and his wife, Judith (née Corpe). At the age of just 11 days, he moved with his family to Trinidad. Four years later, they moved to Libya, and that is the place of which he has his earliest memories. While there, he developed a love of children’s books, and particularly those of such American writers and illustrators as Alice and Martin Provensen, and Richard Scarry, and even began to copy some of their images.
At the age of 6, he moved with his family to Grangemouth, in Stirlingshire, in Scotland, and there attended the first of eight schools across the British Isles.
Neil Packer and his family finally settled in Broomfield, Chelmsford, Essex, and he studied graphics, illustration and printmaking at Colchester School of Art. He began his career in London as a designer for advertising agencies. After a couple of years, he decided to produce an illustrated book, The Rest of the Day is Your Own, based on a music hall song, which was published by Methuen in 1985. Though it would be almost a decade before he returned to book illustration, he developed a successful career in the design, publishing and advertising industries in Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Since 1995, Neil Packer has illustrated many books, both for adults and children, which have been published by the Folio Society and Walker Books/Candlewick Press (see the checklist below). In 2021, he won the Bologna Ragazzi Award for non-fiction at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair for One of a Kind (2020).
His work has been exhibited at the British Library, the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Chris Beetles Gallery, and he has held solo shows at the Portal Gallery, the Illustration Cupboard and the Coningsby Gallery.
Neil Packer has lived in London for many years.
A Preliminary Checklist of Books with illustrations or binding designs by Neil Packer
1985
The Rest of the Day is Your Own, London: Methuen
1994
Robert Graves, I, Claudius, London: Folio Society: illustrations
1995
Robert Graves, Claudius the God, London: Folio Society: illustrations
1996
Sybil Kapoor, Modern British Food, London: Penguin Books: illustrations
1998
Ruby Le Bois, Susan C Tate &c, Hot & Spicy Kookboek, Lisse: Zuid Boekprodukties
2001
Umberto Eco (translated by William Weaver), The Name of the Rose, Folio Society: illustrations
2002
Joseph and Frances Giles, Scenes of Medieval Life, London: Folio Society (3 vols): binding design;
Frances Wood, The Silk Road, London: Folio Society: binding design
2003
Petronius Arbiter (translated by Frederick Raphael), Satyrica, London: Folio Society: illustrations;
Translated by Dr J C Mardrus (and rendered into English by Powys Mathers), The Arabian Nights, London: Folio Society: illustrations;
John Julius Norwich, Byzantium, London: Folio Society (3 vols): binding design
2004
Christopher Tyerman (ed), An Eyewitness History of the Crusades, London: Folio Society: binding design;
Joseph Heller, Catch 22, London: Folio Society: illustrations
2005
Leo de Hartog, Morris Rossabi, Beatrice Forbes Manz, Lives of the Mongol Warlords, London: Folio Society (3 vols): binding design;
Hans Christian Andersen (translated by Jean Hersholt), The Complete Tales, London: Folio Society (2 vols): contributed illustrations;
John Keay, The Spice Route, London: Folio Society: binding design
2006
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (translated by Gregory Rabassa), One Hundred Years of Solitude, London: Folio Society: illustrations;
Christopher Burke, The Rise and Fall of the Medieval Monastery, London: Folio Society: binding design;
Alessandro Barbero (translated by Allan Cameron), Charlemagne, Father of a Continent, London: Folio Society: binding design
2007
Donald A Yates & James E Irby (eds), Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths, London: Folio Society: illustrations
2008
Colin Tudge, The Secret Life of Trees, London: Folio Society: binding design;
Patrick Süskind (translated by John E Woods), Perfume, London: Folio Society: binding design
2010
Bede (translated by Leo Sherley-Price, revised by R E Latham), History of the English Church and People, London: Folio Society: binding design
2012
Gillian Cross (retold by), Homer, The Odyssey, London: Walker Books/Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press: illustrations
2014
John Agard, Book, London: Walker Books/Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press: illustrations
2015
Gillian Cross (retold by), Homer, The Iliad, London: Walker Books/Somerville, MA: illustrations;
The Herefordshire Pomona, a limited facsimile edition, London: Folio Society: binding design
2016
Umberto Eco (translated by William Weaver), Foucault’s Pendulum, London: Folio Society: illustrations
Carola Hicks and Sylvette Lemagen, The Bayeux Tapestry, London: Folio Society: binding design
2018
Peter Frankopan, Silk Roads, London: Walker Books/Somerville, MA: illustrations
2020
Neil Packer, One of a Kind, London: Walker Books/Somerville, MA: illustrations
2021
Dante Alighieri (translated by Robin Kirkpatrick), The Divine Comedy, London: Folio Society: illustrations;
John Cherry (ed), Mythical Beasts, London: Folio Society: illustrations
