As Animalia turns 40, its author reflects on its extraordinary success

As Animalia turns 40, Graeme Base reflects on the story behind the classic picture book In 1986, Graeme Base was a 28-year-old illustrator who had published one picture book, My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch, and was about to publish another. His sophomore effort was an alliterative alphabet book lavishly illustrated in his baroque style, titled Animalia. Whether the world needed another A-B-C book was debatable, but his publisher, Bob Sessions, was willing to take a punt. The first hint of the phenomenal success the book would garner — coming in at number five on the New York Times list of the bestselling books of 1987 — was the response to an exhibition of the artwork held in the lead up to the book's publication. Every piece — bar the two Base held onto (his favourites, Lazy Lions and Horribly Hairy Hogs) — sold before opening night. It was a life-changing moment for Base and his wife, Robyn. "Suddenly we had this little pot of money," Base says. "We didn't invest it or put a deposit on a house — we bought two round-the-world air tickets and shot through for a year." They were backpacking through India and Nepal when Animalia came out, and received updates on the road. "We were getting telegrams — that shows how long ago this was — from Bob saying 'we've reprinted again'," Base says. The initial standard print run of 5,000 was doubled to 10,000, making the book a success from the outset. "Three weeks later, they did another 10,000, then another 10,000, then another 10,000," Base says. "Then they stopped mucking about and did 25,000. And then while we were away, we got news that they had just reprinted 50,000." Animalia has enjoyed unflagging popularity since it was first published four decades ago, with anniversary editions reprinted in 1996 and 2012. It has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide and, earlier in 2026, was voted fifth in Guardian Australia's poll of Australia's best children's picture books. In 2026, the book is being celebrated again, with the release of the Animalia: 40th Anniversary Edition and an Animalia Colouring Book. A lucky break Born in the UK, Base came to Australia when he was eight. In England, Base had been a cocky and confident kid — "one of the lads", he says. "When I got to Australia, I was anything but … I was this new kid in a tough Australian primary school with a very strong English accent who didn't know any of the schoolyard games. "Any kid who finds himself in that position probably starts trying to figure out if they're good at something, start doing it to carve your niche in the playground and to make friends." For Base, that was drawing. After graduating from graphic design at university, Base followed his classmates into advertising, which he soon realised was not the industry for him. "I lasted maybe 18 months, went through three jobs, got fired from the third one," he says. All the while, art remained his passion. He used his last pay cheque to print of some of his best illustrations, which he showed to publishers in the hope of finding work creating book jackets. The work trickled in and after illustrating a couple of picture books, Base decided he could try his hand at writing one himself. The result was My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch, published in 1981. When Base showed Sessions the first completed pages — Crafty Crimson Cats and the Horrible Hairy Hogs — of his next book, the publisher was enthusiastic. Sessions took the finished pages to the high-profile Bologna Book Fair, where they caught the attention of publisher and editor Paul Gottlieb, who agreed to publish it in the US. Base says it took him three years to finish the book, because he "was trying to be a rock star at the same time". Still in his 20s, Base was leading a "double life", working on his children's book by day and playing in a rock band — named Rikitikitavi in a nod to Rudyard Kipling — at night. The real drawcard, however, was the lead singer, Robyn, who Base, of course, ended up marrying. The pair recently celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary — "a happy story," Base says. From the US to China What sent Animalia into the stratosphere was its unprecedented success in America. Upon its US publication, the Bases, still on their round-the-world adventure, detoured to New York to do publicity for the book. Base's first interview was a big one, with Charlie Gibson on Good Morning America — one of the country's most popular TV anchors on one of the highest rating shows. When the cameras started rolling, Base responded to Gibson's warm welcome with a laconic "g'day". The TV host was immediately charmed. "We just started riffing," Base says. In his inexperience, Base forgot all about mentioning his new book — the reason he was there — which was sitting untouched on the coffee table. Fortunately, Gibson was more on the ball. "With 30 seconds to go … he picked up the book off the coffee table and he held it to camera and did a hard sell that I couldn't have done to save my life — one of those, 'If you buy one book for your kids this Christmas, it's this one'." The effect was dramatic. "The book just flew off the shelves. Bookstores were caught unawares," Base says. "The publishers went back to press and managed to catch the wave, and that year Animalia was the fifth biggest-selling book on the New York Times bestseller list." For Base, it was a vindication of his youthful impetuosity. "If we hadn't been stupid and bought around-the-world tickets we wouldn't have got ourselves to New York … [and] I wouldn't have done that interview," he says. "[It's one of] those amazing things that do happen in life." The success of Animalia kicked off a successful 30-year publishing career in the US, a rare feat for an Australian author. While he says his "star has largely set in America", he has since found a growing market in China, after a trip to the Beijing Book Fair in 2017 led to a publisher picking up The Waterhole, a counting book full of elephants, giraffes and zebras. The book "caught fire" and was added to a government-issued recommended reading list for schools. "Every primary school in China finished up with multiple copies of The Waterhole, and it set off an interest in my work there," Base says. Today, more than 20 of Base's books have been published in China, including Moonfish, a 2019 picture book inspired by a trip he took to Wuhan. The Eleventh Hour After the success of Animalia, Base faced a fresh challenge: how to write another book just as popular. "The well-known term 'one-hit wonder' had a terrifying sort of resonance for me," he says. An alphabet book offered limited scope for a sequel, so Base was compelled to come up with a new idea. He'd read a few Agatha Christie novels during his travels and wondered if he could write a whodunnit for kids, where the clues were in the artwork rather than the text. "I started working on that concept and almost immediately, the title, The Eleventh Hour, fell out of the air — I thought that's a great title for a mystery story," he says. "I knew my story had to be centred around the number 11: 11 guests, an 11th birthday party, and at 11 o'clock something happens." It took some time to work out just what that something was. Initially, Base envisaged the victim as a dog, depicted slumped dead in a chair, killed by poison. After Sessions gently pointed out that a picture book was not the place for a dead dog, Base went back to the drawing board. He toyed with the idea of a jewellery heist but settled on a more kid-friendly crime: the theft of the party food. The Eleventh Hour was published in 1989 and became another global bestseller. It was the joint winner (with Allan Baillie and Jane Tanner for Drac and the Gremlin) of CBCA's Picture Book of the Year. Base believes his books are so popular with kids because he treats them "like grown-ups". "I don't talk down to any perceived audience," he says. "If there's a word in Animalia that they don't know or understand, well, you can look it up. That's what a dictionary's for. "I'm not being arrogant about that. I think that's part of the fun of learning and discovery." The sophisticated language of Animalia's V page — Victor V Vulture, the vaudeville ventriloquist, versatile virtuoso of vociferous verbosity, vexatiously vocalising at the Valhalla Variety Venue — did elicit a raised eyebrow from Sessions. "Bob did say when I came to him with that one, 'Gee, that's pretty tough, isn't it?'" Base recalls. "I said, 'Yeah, it is, but that's OK — I didn't know what vociferous meant until I looked it up. Surely kids can do the same." Sessions was persuaded and the text stayed as it was — a decision Base believes would never be made today. "I don't think there is a snowflake in hell's chance that that would have got through a committee without being simplified in this day and age," he says. "These days, it's a lot more complicated. There are all sorts of reviews and anonymous readers and sales and marketing and cover committees … who will all put in their 20 cents worth, and you finish up with this thing which is trying to please too many masters." He says he's never had any complaints from kids that his books are too hard. "You're so much better off with kids not to put your hands on your knees and talk down to them, but to aim over their heads and challenge them to rise to the occasion," he says. "And they will." Animalia: 40th Anniversary Edition and an Animalia Colouring Book are published by Penguin Random House Australia.