Terry Denton on a beach in Melbourne. His picture book series Gasp! was made into a TV show in Australia. Photograph: The AGE/Fairfax Media/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Terry Denton on a beach in Melbourne. His picture book series Gasp! was made into a TV show in Australia. Photograph: The AGE/Fairfax Media/Getty Images Illustration Obituary Terry Denton obituary Witty and inventive illustrator of children’s books, notably the multimillion-selling Treehouse series by Andy Griffiths
Prefer the Guardian on Google The author and illustrator Terry Denton, who has died 76, was the prolific creator of more than 90 children’s books. He is best known for his witty, inventive and easy-to-read line illustrations in The 13-Storey Treehouse series, written by Andy Griffiths , the current Australian children’s laureate.
Originally published in Australia from 2011, and then quickly around the world (the first book was published in the UK in 2015), the 13 titles in the anarchic and charming adventure series ended in 2023 with The 169-Storey Treehouse; the sixth volume, The 78-Storey Treehouse, became the fastest-selling book in Australian publishing history when it appeared in 2016.
The 13-Storey Treehouse introduces the friends Andy and Terry, who make books together, and live in an elaborate treehouse whose features include a bowling alley, a tank of man-eating sharks, a giant catapult, an underground laboratory and “a marshmallow machine that follows you around and automatically shoots marshmallows into your mouth whenever you’re hungry”.
View image in fullscreen Denton’s cover for The 78-Storey Treehouse, his record-breaking book with Andy Griffiths There were also standalone, spin-off titles such as The Treehouse Fun Book (2016) and Who’s Who and What’s Where in the Treehouse (2023), a comprehensive guide to “all 169 levels, all the characters and all the astonishing machines and gadgets that are in our treehouse”.
The series became a byword for attracting and holding the attention of young readers of 7+ and sold more than 13m English language copies worldwide as well as being translated into 35 languages.
Denton and Griffiths were equal partners in their creative success and they frequently celebrated their good fortune in finding each other, with Denton commenting that Griffiths was the first author whose sense of humour matched his own. Their first joint series of stories began with Just Tricking! (1997) – in which the narrator, Andy, pretends to be dead to get out of going to school – and ran to nine titles, finishing with Just Doomed! (2012).
It had many of the same qualities as the Treehouse series but, as Griffiths described it, there was a significant difference: “The Just! books are 80% anarchy, 20% nice. Treehouse is 20% anarchy, 80% nice”. Denton captured both in a particular style of illustration: “I’m trying to make it look like I’m drawing quickly so that it seems unskilled, but the key thing is the idea. It’s all about the idea. Kids like my artwork. They think they can draw like this. It’s like I’ve entered into their territory.”
Denton’s record-breaking creative partnership with Griffiths came after many years as a successful illustrator and author of picture books, junior fiction and non-fiction titles as well as collaborations with other writers. He had an instinct for what entertains young readers, which he reflected in his several styles, from his gifted water colours for picture books to inventive line drawi…