Editing Quentin Blake (section)

==Early life==
Blake was born on 16 December 1932 in [[Sidcup]], [[Kent]], son of William and Evelyn Blake. His father was a civil servant, and his mother a housewife.<ref>Contemporary Authors, ed. Scot Peacock, Cengage Gale, 2002, p. 72</ref><ref>People of Today, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2006, p. 152</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/quentin-blake-roald-dahl-different-sort-person/ | title=Quentin Blake: 'Roald Dahl was a very different sort of person from me' | newspaper=The Telegraph | date=18 December 2021 | last1=Blake | first1=Quentin }}</ref> Blake was [[Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II|evacuated to the West Country]] during the [[Second World War]]. He attended Holy Trinity [[Lamorbey]] Church of England Primary School and [[Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School]], where his English teacher, J. H. Walsh, influenced his life's work.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Questions and Answers {{!}} Quentin Blake |url=https://www.quentinblake.com/meet-qb/questions-and-answers |access-date=20 July 2022 |website=quentinblake.com}}</ref> 

Blake’s artistic development during his school years was helped by contact with the painter and cartoonist Alfred Jackson, the husband of Blake's Latin teacher, who encouraged his first submissions to ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'', resulting in his first publication at the age of 16. In the sixth form, the school's art teacher, the painter [[Stanley Simmonds]], recognized Blake's talents and provided support and exposure to the work of other artists.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kenyon|first=Ghislane|title=Quentin Blake: In the Theatre of the Imagination: An Artist at Work| publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2016 |location=London|isbn=978-1441130075|page=68}}</ref> 

Blake read English Literature at [[Downing College, Cambridge]], under [[F. R. Leavis]], from 1953 to 1956, received his postgraduate teaching diploma from the University of London [[Institute of Education]], and later studied part-time at the [[Chelsea School of Art]] and later [[Camberwell College of Art]].<ref>The International Who's Who, 1996-97, Gale Group, Europa Publications, p. 162</ref> He has since denied that studying at the University of Cambridge contributed to his artistic or creative talent.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/interviews/0030965-interview-quentin-blake.html|title=Interview:Quentin Blake|work=The Cambridge Student|date=6 November 2013 }}</ref>