Hello! I’m Diletta, a picturebook maker – passionate about supporting children’s book writers and illustrators.
In 2018, on my maternity leave, I dreamed of stepping into a picturebook and flying to imaginary lands… so I packed a suitcase, strapped baby Wolf to my chest, and moved to London!
There I studied Children’s Literature at Roehampton University and learned how to make picturebooks at The Cambridge School of Art, meeting incredibly talented friends and even signing up with a fabulous literary agent!
It was bliss.
And then…
Covid forced us to move back to Rome and suddenly I was alone in my studio, struggling to work on my picturebooks.
Months passed. With no courses, no deadlines and no fellow creatives to compare notes with, I felt so lonely!
I dreamed of being surrounded by writers and illustrators again – sharing our stories, sipping coffee, discussing the power of a page turn, the rhythm of a figure of speech… There’d be laughter, excitement and piles of picturebooks everywhere!
And that’s how I dreamed up Inky Larks: an art studio where we meet the blank page together – as a friend. We let our imaginations take flight and get our manuscripts finished!
Where it all started: London in the 1940s
Combining creativity and friendship is our most cherished family tradition. It dates back to the 1940s when my grandfather shared an art studio by the King’s Rd with legendary children’s book writer and illustrator, Mervyn Peake.
When Mervyn and his wife, the painter Meave Gilmore, learned that my grandparents were expecting their first child and had very little money, they generously invited them to stay at their home in Kent. What followed was an “eruption of creativity”, an extraordinary year in which the four friends wrote, painted and parented together. (click here to read the letter that my grandfather wrote to Maeve Gilmore remembering those happy times https://www.jstor.org/stable/24776503)
Since then we’ve continued to weave art, hospitality and family into the tapestry of our lives.
Today my mother Allegra and I honour this tradition by opening our home and studio to welcome you!
Discover our award-winning tutors and this year’s picturebook retreats:
English 
Italian