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Graham Oakley served 1947-49 in the British Army.

In 1950, he attended the Warrington Art School. He worked for London repertory companies as a scenic artist from 1950-55.

From 1955-57 he was a design assistant at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, worked at Crawford's Advertising Agency from 1960—62, and then as a set designer for films and series at BBC-TV from 1962-67 for How Green Was My Valley, Nicholas Nickleby, Treasure Island, and Softly, Softly.

Graham Oakley is best known for the Church Mice series, published 1970 to 2000, and the Foxbury Force series (1994 to 1998). He also won a citation from the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in 1980 for a picture book entitled Magical Changes. It features detailed scenes that are drawn in such a way that the pages, which are cut in half, allow you to combine the top and bottom into many (often surreal) situations from original drawings that are already strange. It was republished in 2001 in France under the name 512, the title representing how many different combinations can be made.

The Church Mice series includes:

• The Church Mouse - Atheneum, 1972
• The Church Cat Abroad - Atheneum, 1973
• The Church Mice and the Moon - Atheneum, 1974
• The Church Mice Spread Their Wings - Macmillan (London), 1975
• The Church Mice Adrift - Macmillan (London), 1976
• The Church Mice at Bay - Macmillan (London), 1978
• The Church Mice at Christmas - Atheneum, 1980
• The Church Mice in Action - Macmillan (London), 1982
• The Diary of a Church Mouse - Macmillan (London), 1986
• The Church Mice and the Ring, 1992.
• Humphrey Hits the Jackpot - Hodder Children’s Books, 1998
• The Church Mice Take a Break - Hodder Children’s Books, 2000