Miriam Elia

Miriam Elia is a British artist, writer, illustrator, and broadcaster born on August 16, 1982, in Muswell Hill, London. She is best known for the Dung Beetle Reading Scheme, a series of satirical books styled after the Ladybird children’s books, which had sold over 250,000 copies in art galleries and bookshops worldwide as of the information available on the Dung Beetle Books website. Her work has appeared in The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, the Art Newspaper, The New York Times, and Huffington Post, and her first major solo exhibition was held at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw in 2023.

Key facts

  • Born: 1982
  • Birthplace: London
  • Occupation: artist

Early life and education

Elia grew up in a household shaped by art. Her father worked as an abstract graphic designer and her mother as a figurative painter who collaborated with mime artist Lindsay Kemp and the punk movement. Both parents were practising artists.

She completed a BA in graphic design in Brighton before moving to London for postgraduate study. In 2006 she graduated with a Master’s degree from the Royal College of Art.

Radio and broadcasting

After leaving the Royal College of Art, Elia was spotted by BBC radio comedy producers and spent four years writing jokes and sketches across various shows. One of those shows was A Series of Psychotic Episodes, which ran for two series and nine episodes between 2007 and 2010; the second series was broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

She also wrote, performed, and directed five short films for Channel 4’s arts strand Random Acts. Each film examined a different animal surviving in the contemporary economic climate.

The Dung Beetle Reading Scheme

Shortly after its release, Penguin Group sent her a cease-and-desist letter claiming copyright infringement of the Ladybird brand and demanding the destruction of all remaining copies.

A change in UK copyright law that came into force on October 1, 2014, created an exemption for parody and satire. That legal shift allowed Elia to re-release a revised edition under the Dung Beetle Books imprint. In the new edition the children’s names were changed from Peter and Jane to John and Susan, and the Ladybird logo was replaced with a dung beetle.

Elia and her brother Ezra worked together on the scheme from 2014 to 2018. From We Do Lockdown (2020) onwards she continued independently. We See the Sights, published by Dung Beetle Books Ltd on October 20, 2022, is a 48-page satirical book in which the characters take a sightseeing tour of post-Covid London.

In response to Penguin’s lawsuit and the publisher’s subsequent release of its own adult Ladybird parody series, Elia created a limited-edition lithographic print titled We Sue an Artist (and then rip off her idea).

The New Normal exhibition

Elia’s first major solo exhibition, titled The New Normal, opened on 24 March 2023 at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Poland, and ran until 11 June 2023. It was curated by Manick Govinda.

Did you know

  • Elia appeared on the Sony Radio Academy Award shortlist in 2008 alongside established names including Paul Whitehouse, Mark Thomas, and Mitchell and Webb. It was her very first show. (chortle.co.uk)

Data sources

Data updated: 2026-10-28