Errol Le Cain (1941–1989) was a British animator and children's book illustrator. He won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1985.
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Born in Singapore on 5 March 1941, Errol Le Cain was evacuated with his family the year following the Japanese invasion. He lived in India for several years before eventually settling in the UK after WWII.
With no formal art education, his noted talent was nevertheless evident from an early age. Fascinated by cinema, he made his first animated film, The Enchanted Mouse, with a friend's 8 mm camera at age 11. His next work, The Little Goatherd, was created on a 16 mm camera at the age of 15, and came to the attention of British film distributor Pearl & Dean Limited. In 1956, he moved to London to pursue a career in animation. Married with two children, he died after a long illness on 3 January 1989, aged 47.
In 1965, Le Cain joined Richard Williams's animation studio and worked on a wide range of animation projects, including film titles for The Charge of the Light Brigade, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Casino Royale. His most important work with Richard Williams is the unfinished animated film The Thief and the Cobbler.
Le Cain turned freelance in 1969, working on sets for BBC productions as well as continuing with animation projects and developing his career as a children's book illustrator.
His animation work for the BBC began with a production of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, first broadcast on BBC2 on Christmas Day 1976, using live actors over backdrops designed by Le Cain. A picture-book version of the story with his illustrations was published by Viking Kestrel in 1979. This production was followed by The Light Princess (broadcast 24 December 1978 BBC2), The Mystery of the Disappearing Schoolgirls (28 December 1980) and Leon Garfield's The Ghost Downstairs (broadcast 26 December 1982 on BBC2).
In 1968, Le Cain's first children's illustrations were published for King Arthur's Sword (Faber & Faber), which began a long association with this publisher that continued up to his death. Le Cain illustrated 48 children's books during his lifetime, most noted for their richly decorative watercolours and masterful command of design and colour. He was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal twice, for The Cabbage Princess in 1969 and Thorn Rose in 1976, and eventually received the first prize in the Award for Hiawatha's Childhood in 1985. Particularly notable titles included (but are not limited to):