Jade was born in North Carolina and grew up in a tiny Michigan town. After an impassioned childhood spent drawing dragons and cat ladies, she traveled to SCAD Savannah to get a BFA in Illustration. In 2018, Jade left her job of 7 years as a staff children’s apparel artist to freelance full time. She currently lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband, greyhound, and 4 cats (including two naked ones!) When she’s not drawing, Jade can usually be found curled up with her cats and a really good book.

Stephanie Taylor is a British-born author of Jamaican heritage. Married to Michael, she has two amazing grown-up children, Sîan and Miles. Stephanie has worked in primary education for over 20 years at the same school in South East London.

Reading and writing books for children is Stephanie’s passion – if she can use this to encourage children to read then she feels like she has achieved something wonderful.

Matt Brown is an author and broadcaster based in the UK. He has written eight books for children, including Mutant Zombies Cursed My School Trip which won the FCBG Children’s Book Award in 2020. Before dyeing his hair grey for fashion reasons, Matt presented on some of the UK’s most popular TV shows and he has been on the radio a lot, hosting shows and making documentaries. He is a passionate promoter of reading for pleasure in schools as well as an advocate of saving public libraries.

Matt is not considered dangerous (unless you get him talking about either his favourite trousers or Manchester United). Chats with him on either of these subjects may lead to death-by-boredom. Also, he does NOT look good in hats.

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.

Born in Warwickshire, Richard Jones has been living and working in Devon for over 20 years. After leaving university with a first class degree in graphic design and illustration, he stayed on a little longer to complete a PhD.

He spent several years working in a busy children’s library, issuing and shelving other artists’ picture books, before one day wondering if it wasn’t about time he had a proper go at creating one or two himself!

Richard now writes and illustrates from the smallest room in his home. Across the roof tops of Exeter, and between the rounded Devon hills, he can just about make out the distant sparkling sea.