Jan Pienkowski was born in Warsaw, into a family of architects and artists. He came to England with his parents in 1946 and was educated in London and at King's College, Cambridge. A co-founder of the greetings card company Gallery Five (of which he remains a director), he has worked as an art director in advertising, publishing and the BBC children's television series, Watch. He has produced many books for children, including the hugely popular Meg and Mog books, written by Helen Nicoll. He has twice won the Kate Greenaway Medal, in 1972 for his illustrations to Joan Aiken's The Kingdom Under the Sea, and in 1980 for the classic pop-up book Haunted House.