Lyn Gardner is the author of Olivia’s First Term and the other Olivia books. She was born in London and now lives near Richmond Park with her partner and two daughters. A theatre critic for The Guardian, she goes to the theatre five or six nights a week, which should leave no time for writing books at all. Before she became a journalist, Lyn was a tea lady, a waitress and sold advertising space for a magazine called Sludge. Her ambitions are to learn to tap dance and walk the high wire, but it may have to be the low wire as she is a bit scared of heights!

Birdie Black, the author of Just Right for Christmas and Warthog, read lots of children’s books as a child, and didn’t really ever stop. As well as writing the odd book, she runs a small, independent children’s publishing company… Oh, all right: it’s Kate Wilson.

Rosalind Beardshaw is the illustrator of several books for Nosy Crow, including the bestselling When a Dragon Comes to Stay and I See the Moon.

She loves creating new characters, especially if they can be based loosely/wholly on her shaggy lurcher, Basil.

She lives in York with her partner, Al, daughter, Iris, and young son, Freddie, who loves watching Calamity Jane.

Esther Aarts is a Dutch illustrator currently working from her studio in an old soap factory. She loves drawing people, especially in motion, suspended in air or interacting physically with their surroundings. Esther’s illustrations have appeared in international newspapers, magazines, on greeting cards and T-shirts.

In her spare time, Esther loves trampolining, cycling and being outdoors. Esther lives in Nijmegen, supposedly the oldest city in the Netherlands. Several Roman artefacts were found in her area, but none in her garden so far, so she keeps digging.

Rebecca lives in Cardiff, South Wales, with her two lovely children. When she used to draw as a child, she never knew she’d be lucky enough to do it as a job when she grew up. She studied Graphic Design and Illustration in Exeter, and her first creations after university were greetings cards for her own business plus a large card company in Bristol. Rebecca works in a little studio above her friend’s busy jewellery shop and, from here, she has illustrated many picture books for children including the much-loved Ruby the Duckling series, and numerous baby books.

Nizrana Farook was born and raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and the beautiful landscapes of her home country find their way into the stories she writes. She has a master’s degree in writing for young people, and lives with her family in Hertfordshire.

Alastair is a children’s author and puzzle creator. As a puzzle creator he wrote quite a lot of books of Sudoku and other puzzles for kids and grown-ups, and as an author he writes picture books and middle-grade fiction. Alastair lives in Edinburgh with his wife (who is lovely), two teenagers (who are lovely but very loud), and a cat named Maudie, who is yowling at him even though there is clearly food in her bowl, look, it’s right there, look. His hobbies include writing and playing games on his phone when he should be writing. You can follow him on Twitter @alastair_ch, if you like.

Louie Stowell started her career writing carefully-researched books about space, ancient Egypt, politics and science but eventually lapsed into just making stuff up. She likes writing about dragons, wizards, vampires, fairies, monsters and parallel worlds.

She lives in London with her wife Karen, her dog Buffy and a creepy puppet that is probably cursed.

Dashe Roberts spent most of her life in California and studied Psychology and Film at UC Berkeley. After several years working in New York as a playwright and actress, she moved to London and received an MA in Children’s Literature. Dashe loves stories that contain elements of mystery, adventure and the uncanny, and The Bigwoof Conspiracy is her debut novel for children.

Matt Hunt was born in Redditch, Worcestershire in 1988. Starting out as a fine artist, he graduated from the Birmingham School of Art, and from these roots, developed a love for children’s illustration. He currently shares a house with his wife Hayley and two cats. Matt works in mixed media, utilising paint, pens, crayons, and digital. He loves to create new and interesting characters and write stories for them. He’s influenced by old movies, classic illustration, cartoons and books.