Tom Adams is a children’s author who juggles his time between writing books and making television programmes. He was born in Yorkshire but now lives in Kent with his wife and their three teenage sons. When he’s not at his desk writing, he’s often scribbling ideas for books and TV shows down in his notebook. He likes lots of sports, cooking, walking and playing the guitar but is slowly realising that his children are better than him at most of these things. He dislikes weeding the garden but does it anyway.

Isabelle Follath is a freelance illustrator living in Zurich, Switzerland with her husband and daughter, where she creates pictures for books and many other things. She loves drawing all sorts of characters, mixing colours and drinking an alarming amount of coffee. When she is not illustrating you can find her searching for the perfect vintage nib or trying rearrange her watercolours of which she has far too many.

Rachael Dean is a UK based freelance illustrator, who lives on the coast near Liverpool. She studied Graphic Design and Illustration at Liverpool John Moore’s University, and graduated in 2017 with a First Class Honours degree.

Rachael works traditionally painting images which are vivid and bold. She has a penchant for pattern but her real passion lies in the outdoors and travelling. She loves to gather inspiration from beautiful scenes of nature, which is often reflected in her work.

Rachael’s clients include Andersen Press, Chicken House, Nosy Crow, Egmont, Puffin and Penguin Random House US.

Jo has been illustrating for more years than she cares to remember. Originally from Norfolk she graduated from Loughborough College of Art, travelled the world for a bit, worked for design agencies in London and Nottingham before finally settling with her family in deepest, darkest Leicestershire. On the whole she prefers to illustrate people (and ponies of course) but her work is varied and adaptable and can be seen on a vast range of projects from children’s books, editorial design, educational publications to book jackets, advertising and packaging and most recently on Christmas 50p coins.

Jo loves the theatre and aims to keep fit by playing tennis enthusiastically but with varying degrees of success.

Sally was born in Newcaste and studied Graphic Design at Brighton. She is the author of Funny Face, Sunny Face, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw, and has also written a number of books with long-time collaborator Nick Sharratt, including The Gooey, Chewy, Rumble, Plop Book, winner of the Educational Writer’s Award. She lives in Sussex with her two children, a dog called Mabel, and an axe-wielding husband.

Lorraine Carey is the author of Cinderella’s Sister and the Big Bad Wolf. She was brought up in the Dorset countryside, a six mile cycle from the sea. Lorraine spent her early years digging for fairies in the back garden, and hoping upon hope that she’d wake up on Christmas morning to find a horse behind the settee. Her proudest moment was to wear a satin tutu, with ruffs, on a float in the town carnival, and she’s been hoping they’ll ask her to do it again ever since.
Lorraine now lives in London with her son Kassius, their cat Merlin, and an amazingly invincible fish named Bob. Whenever she can, Lorraine is back off down to the seaside for a paddle, even in the winter when it’s rough.

Tom Percival is a keen creative all-rounder (this is in no way the same thing as a jack of all trades – it just sounds like it). He enjoys writing, illustrating, animation, song-writing, music production and photography. He gets to do most of these things for what we should probably refer to as his ‘job’, and feels very lucky because of it.

Over the years, Tom has come to realise that all these disparate mediums are actually just telling stories – and that is where his passion lies. His passions, however, do NOT extend to writing bios in the third person. When he becomes wealthy and powerful, he will employ someone else to create bios for him and will never again sit wracking his brains for something interesting to say about himself.

Tom lives with his girlfriend and their two young sons in a house that stubbornly REFUSES to be renovated.

Peter Bently is the award-winning author of around seventy books for young children. He grew up in an army family and went to ten schools as far apart as Devon, Germany and Hong Kong. Both his parents told him bedtime stories (like the one about Mowberley, the boy who tunnelled to Australia) and he still believes this is crucial in developing a child’s imagination and creativity.

Over the years, Peter has been a journalist and a non-fiction book editor, but writing stories for children is the job he has enjoyed the most. They are often in rhyme, and often (he hopes) funny. His numerous books include King Jack and the Dragon (illustrated by Helen Oxenbury and shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal, as well as being an American Library Association Notable Book of the Year); Cats Ahoy! (illustrated by Jim Field and winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize); and cult classic The Great Dog Bottom Swap (illustrated by Mei Matsuoka).

Peter has two children and lives in London with his wife Lucy and daughter Tara.

Nicolette Jones, writer, literary critic and broadcaster, has been the children’s books reviewer of The Sunday Times for more than two decades. She is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, and a nominee for the 2012 Eleanor Farjeon Award for outstanding service to the world of children’s books. Originally from Leeds, she studied at Oxford University, and at Yale as a Henry Fellow. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a signatory to Authors4Oceans, an honorary member of the Royal Naval Reserve Officers’ Dining Club and is involved in a number of literary, charitable and social initiatives. She is married to fellow writer and journalist Nicholas Clee, and they have two daughters. She lives in London, where she is known as a local community activist and sees a lot of theatre.