Margery Winifred Williams was born in London in 1881. During her lifetime she lived in England, America and Italy and wrote numerous books for adults and children. Her most famous book, The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real, was published in1922.

Anne Booth has always wanted to be a children’s writer, but on the way to becoming one has worked in many jobs. Anne lives in Kent in a lovely village with her husband and four children – and the children’s grandfather across the road. They have two hens called Poppy and Anastasia. Anne loves tea and once won a Blue Peter badge for writing a poem about two mice in a bucket of rice. Despite this, she does not own any mice.

Sam’s debut Can You See Sassoon? was shortlisted for the Waterstones Prize and the Red House Children’s Book Award. When he’s not holding a pen and wobbling at paper you’ll find him playing the piano, eating chocolate and trespassing.

Gemma was born in Suffolk in 1984. She went to school, where she spent most of her time drawing, cutting out and sticking and making her own comics, and wearing ‘My Little Pony’ rollerskates. Twenty-four years later, she’s still drawing, making collages and producing comics but, sadly, the rollerskates no longer fit.
Gemma graduated from the Norwich school of Art and Design in 2006 with a BA (hons) degree in Graphic Design, specialising in Illustration. She now works as a freelance illustrator.

Emma was brought up in a family of artists and from as far back as she can remember she has wanted to be an illustrator. I Love My Mummy, written by Giles Andreae and illustrated by Emma, won the Booktrust Best Book For Babies award in 2010. Among Emma’s favourite things in life are surfing with her kids, punctuality and Scrabble. Things she cannot abide include heights, paté and children who complain that they are bored. ‘How can you ever be bored,’ she says, ‘when you can always draw a picture?’

Charles Fuge was born in 1966 and grew up in Bath. He made his picture book debut in 1988 with Bushvark’s First Day Out, which won both the Macmillan Prize and the Mother Goose Award. Since then Charles has illustrated over thirty books, a number of which he has also written. He is the illustrator for A Lullaby for Little One, written by Dawn Casey, and he lives in Dorset.

Dawn draws inspiration from her travels near and far, from tales of old, and from the natural world. Her collection The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales won the Gold Nautilus Award and received an Accolade form the American Folklore Society. In previous incarnations, Dawn worked in publishing and as a primary school teacher. She is now mother to two young children, and lives in Lewes in Sussex. Though officially a grown up, Dawn still believes in magic.

Sarah grew up in Derbyshire, mainly under a snowdrift. She spent much of her childhood scampering in the nearby fields with a few goats. Then she decided to be sensible and studied Illustration at Falmouth College of Arts and gained a Masters degree at Kingston University. Sarah lives in London and specialises in funny, inky illustration and words for children’s books.

Andy writes all about the most amazing, unusual, funny and fascinating things in the world and beyond. He likes a good joke and also making giant things out of cardboard, although most of the time he is visiting schools and getting children excited about books. He lives in a forest in Gloucestershire where he enjoys cheese, cats and table tennis.

Alison grew up in Lanarkshire near Glasgow and studied Textile Design at Glasgow School of Art. After graduating, she moved to London where she did a variety of jobs, including selling books for Waterstones and designing rugs for Habitat, before going back to university again to study design for interactive media. She co-founded a successful interactive media company but now works mainly as an illustrator and author of picture books.