May Gibbs became one of Australia's most well-known and loved illustrators. Her gum-nut babies have been adored by generations of children. For the first time her early life and artistic career are explored in detail. She travelled to England in a quest to develop as an artist and became an early supporter of the suffragettes. Her early paintings of wildflowers led her to discover the limitations of being a woman artist and she discovered that working hard to develop a sustaining commercial career in art was not going to be easy. One of the few women to become a commercial success, she did so by turning to fantasy and children's illustration. This is a fascinating illustrated biography of a talented artist, complete with beautiful reproductions of May Gibbs' work throughout.