Alex Cotter has worked hard all her life at daydreaming, while making a living from words: from bookselling at WHSmith and publicising The Booker Prize to copywriting and teaching creative writing. Raised in the North, Alex now lives near Bath with her family and one very chatty kitten.

David grew up in London with various siblings and a selection of animals (the dog is probably worth a mention). His father was a sculptor and David remembers watching him work and being fascinated as carved faces and figures emerged from blocks of wood and stone. It took him a while to decide what he wanted to do with his pencils (he never stopped drawing), and for a period of time, back in the 1980’s, he worked as a cel-renderer and background artist in several animation studios.

By the mid 1990’s he began illustrating children’s books. In 2001 he wrote and illustrated the first of his own picture books; The Kiss That Missed which was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway award. He is probably best known for his Hugless Douglas series. To date he has created around 150 books in over 30 languages.

David lives in Oxfordshire with his wife and two children. Currently, there are no pets to speak of, now he’s over the hamster/stick insect phase.

Caroline was born in France and grew up in the Netherlands, where she studied Fashion Design in Amsterdam and worked 14 years as a fashion designer. her three children were born in Spain and the family lived for four years in Malaysia.

Caroline has been fascinated by picture books since she was a child. When she had children, she couldn’t stop buying beautiful illustrated picture books. This is when the seed was planted, and she knew she wanted to illustrate picture books of her own one day!

Now she is a published illustrator and living with her family and four stray cats from Malaysia in Switzerland, looking over a lake and mountains!

Ekaterina Trukhan creates illustrations for children’s books, magazines and products. She is also the author of several children’s books. She graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in London and now she lives the digital nomad life traveling with her husband and their dog.

Hayley Webster writes stories about how people try to make sense of the world around them, when it so often doesn’t make sense. Her first ever job was in a fish and chip shop, and since then she’s worked in magazines and as a teacher in secondary and primary schools, and now she writes and edits books. Being a mum to her daughter is her absolute favourite thing. She believes it’s never a bad time to be kind, laugh ridiculously, or be yourself.

Johnny Dyrander is an illustrator based in Stockholm, Sweden. He was born and raised above the Arctic circle in northern Sweden and grew up surrounded by reindeer and northern light. He moved to Stockholm in his early twenties and began studying at various art schools. He’s been working as an illustrator since he finished his studies at the University College of Arts, Crafts & Design in Stockholm.

When he’s not spending time in his office illustrating, Johnny likes to travel, spend time with his family or drive down to his house in southern Sweden, pick up a hammer and saw and pretend to be a carpenter. He builds things in wood with quite mixed results.

Rebecca started “writing” before she learned the alphabet, creating songs from her imagination and memorising the lyrics. Then at age 12, she won an essay contest and received a plane trip as her prize. This fuelled her dreams of becoming an author.

When not writing, Rebecca loves to dance, walk and avoid housework. She lives in North Yorkshire with her two daughters, three snails and multiple bunnies – dust bunnies, that is.

Tom Froese is an award winning illustrator and teacher. He is passionate about making work that makes people happy. In his work, you will experience a flurry of joyful colours, spontaneous textures and quirky shapes.

As a commercial artist, Tom has worked for brands and businesses all over the world, including Yahoo!, Airbnb, and GQ France. The Castle the King Built is Tom’s second published picture book, the first being Whose Boat? by Toni Buzzeo (Abrams Appleseed, 2018).

Originally from the Toronto area, Tom graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design with a B.Des (honours) in 2009. He then moved to Vancouver, BC, where he began his creative career and eventually became a family man.

Tom now works from his home studio in the small village of Yarrow, about an hour’s drive east of Vancouver. He lives with his wife Amanda and daughters Nina and Marie – and a funny cat named Blueberry.

Nia is currently the Creative Director at Nosy Crow and lives in London with her daughter, husband and cat. She has been designing books since 1993 but she has never written or illustrated one . . . until now. Inspired by her teenage daughter and her friends, Let’s Say Yes is her debut picture book. When Nia’s not designing books, she enjoys making wonky pottery, going to gigs and the occasional DJ stint. Her claim to fame was having her single played on Radio 1 in her native language of Welsh.

Angie was born into a big unruly family in Kent. Ever since she was little, all she ever wanted to do was to draw and paint and she still can’t quite believe her luck that she’s now allowed to do this all day and call it her ‘job’. Apart from illustrating picture books, Angie works with companies around the world to create illustrations for greeting cards, games, toys, puzzles, calendars and clothing. In 2017 she set up the brand PlanetCat® to license a range of her popular cat illustrations from her Instagram account: @angierozelaar. Angie and her family are now based in France, where they live in an old Normandy farmhouse alongside a growing menagerie of rescue animals, including cats, chickens and donkeys.