Once upon a time long, long ago, Fiona Waters was born in Edinburgh and she has had her nose in a book ever since. When she was about seven she heard Gabriel Woolf reading The Lady of Shalott on the radio and from that moment she was hooked on poetry forever. Fiona has worked with children’s books all her life as a bookseller, publisher, author, reviewer and latterly as the Editorial Director of Troubadour, choosing the books for book fairs in schools. Now retired, she has been travelling to all the fairytale places she dreamt of as a child, like Russia and Japan, reading even more books with her two cats and still very much enjoying compiling anthologies.

Paula grew up in Hertfordshire with a house full of animals. She has always loved drawing, reading and playing in her imagination, so she studied illustration at Falmouth College of Arts and became an illustrator. She now lives in Bristol, where she has worked as an illustrator for over 10 years.

As well as drawing, Paula likes getting out of the city for long walks and cycle trips in the fresh air (she once cycled from Bristol to Paris!), snuggling indoors with a good book, discovering new music, and dancing the Lindy Hop. Oh, and she also once learned to walk the tightrope!

Jonathan Emmett worked as an architect before becoming a children’s author and novelty book designer, which may explain the inspiration behind Alphabet Street, a novelty book in the form of a street elevation.

Jonathan is the author of over sixty books, including Bringing Down the Moon and The Princess and the Pig and his work has been translated into over thirty different languages. He likes building things and taking things apart, playing games and solving puzzles and letting his imagination run riot.

You can find out more about Jonathan and his books at his website: jonathanemmett.com

Deborah started illustrating as a child and now has more than 40 picture books and several awards with her name on them. She lives in London with her partner and two cats and when she’s not drawing, painting or snipping paper, you’ll find her messing around with horses, messing around in the sea, or searching for bats and moths.

Jamie Littler graduated from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth in 2008, and has won a High Commendation in the Macmillan Children’s Book Award. When not trying to tame his un-naturally fast growing hair or having staring matches with next door’s cat he likes drawing, colouring in, cutting things out and sticking things in.

Roald Dahl Funny Prize-winning author Philip Ardagh is the author of The Grunts and National Trust: The Secret Diary series. He is probably best known for his Grubtown Tales, but he is author of over 100 books. He is a “regular irregular” reviewer of children’s books for The Guardian, and is currently developing a series for television. Philip Ardagh is two metres tall with a ridiculously big, bushy beard and size sixteen feet, making him an instantly recognisable figure at literary festivals around the world.

Penny Dale is an internationally known, best-selling children’s book artist and author and has sold more than 4 million books, with editions in over 20 languages. Her much-loved picture book Ten in the Bed sold over a million copies worldwide. Her other titles have also met with great success: Bet You Can’t and Once There Were Giants were included in the UK SATS booklist for many years, and Once There Were Giants was chosen as one of the Guardian’s Best Children’s Books Ever last year. Rosie’s Babies (also written by Martin Waddell) won the Best Book for Babies award and was also shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1990. Penny is married, has one grown-up daughter and a grandson and lives in South Wales.

Katherine Halligan grew up near the beach in southern California. After studying arts, humanities and languages at Duke University, she moved to the UK and earned an MA in Latin American Literature and Culture from the University of London. She honed her writing skills while working as a publisher, writing over 100 books for children. She lives – once again – near the beach in southern California, with her Irish husband and their two daughters.

Once upon a time, Pippa Goodhart worked in a bookshop full of children’s books. The shop also had a dungeon (true!). When Pippa became manager of the shop, she got to look after the big dungeon key as well as the books and people.

Pippa began to write books when she was at home with her own children. She’s written over a hundred books now, and she’s busy writing more. Her most famous picture book is called You Choose, illustrated by Nick Sharratt. She also writes novels and early reader books, as well as the Winnie the Witch storybooks, which she writes under the pseudonym of Laura Owen.
Pippa lives in a village near Cambridge in a house designed by her husband. It has lots of bookshelves, and rocking chairs on a balcony overlooking the garden, so it’s perfect for sitting and reading. She is a lucky woman!