By Emily Liddle

Published at 09:10, Monday, 16 July 2012

FORMER Hexham student Izy Penguin – better known in real life as Izy Peugniez – is celebrating her first publishing success.

Book launch: Izy Penguin is pictured with her new children’s book Grandma Bendy.

Grandma Bendy, her new children’s book which she both wrote and illustrated, tells the tale of the grandmother who uses her incredibly stretchy limbs to advantage as a burglar.

Far from being subversive, though, the quirky story contains a subtle message that teaches children right and wrong.

Izy said: “I initially started writing children’s books as a hobby – I’d draw accompanying pictures, then give them to my friends’ children, who loved them!”

Izy Penguin was the nickname given to her during her time at Hexham’s Queen Elizabeth High School and it proved the perfect pen-name for a children’s author.

Leaving school in 1997, she went on to complete a foundation art degree at Gateshead College and subsequently a degree in art and design at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Knowing London was where she needed to be to start her budding artistic career, she moved shortly after graduating.

With an abundance of creative talents, Izy landed a position as creative freelancer for a professional company in the capital.

Izy’s parents both taught in Hexham; her father, Patrick Peugniez, now lives in Haltwhistle and her mother, Joan, in Hexham.

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk