Val Biro (born Stephen Balint) was born in Hungary in 1921. His father was a lawyer and he studied at the Jaschnick School of Art in Budapest. In 1939, Biro came to live and study in England and he attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In the early 1940s he worked as a jacket designer for publishers. In the mid 1960s he wrote and illustrated a series of books about his own 1926 Austin motor car called ‘Gumdrop’. He illustrated over 350 books, some of which can be viewed at the V&A museum in London.