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.

When John was a child he was always drawing. So much so that his mother and most of his teachers assumed he would one day become an illustrator or a designer; certainly not an author. Okay, technically he did become a designer… but he’s an author too. Which doesn’t surprise John in the least. John was born and raised in London, but he currently lives on its outskirts where it’s a little leafier. Importantly for him though, it’s just a train ride away from the buzz of town. His favourite holidays involve the sea, which inspires many of his story ideas. Although he doesn’t like to swim in it, he finds the sound of the waves calming and life affirming. He hopes one day to live close enough to the sea to hear it always. As long as it’s not too far from London. Obviously!

Jane Clarke is the author of over 80 books for young children, including the award-winning Gilbert the Great series and Stuck in the Mud. She’s also a children’s poet, so she’s thrilled to bits to have three rhyming picture books with Nosy Crow (Who Woke the Baby, Old MacDonald’s Things That Go, and I Saw Anaconda). Jane enjoys visiting nurseries and primary schools, and loves animals, country walks, fossil hunts, meeting up with her sons and their families in the UK and USA, and having fun with her granddaughters.

Migy (pronounced ‘Miggy’) was born in Salford, England, Migy went to university in London, and then spent 10 years working in advertising and editorial illustration. After marrying, he moved to Buenos Aires. There, surrounded by the vibrancy and colour of South America, he developed a children’s book style that is bold, magical and eye-catching. Migy recently moved back to the UK and, for the first time in his life, he is living outside of a mega-city, enjoying nature and exploring new inspiration. To find out more about Migy, you can visit his website.

Karen McCombie was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, where the view from her bedroom was of the steely North Sea, dotted with oil rigs. But memories of childhood holidays spent in the heather-covered Highlands are what’s lodged in her DNA and these helped inform Little Bird. Karen now lives in London with her very Scottish husband Tom, English daughter Milly (who’s been taught to say “loch” in the correct way) and a Scottish Wildcat (near enough).

Kathryn Selbert is an illustrator from Connecticut, USA. She currently lives in New York City with her partner and french bulldog, Margot. She spends her time cooking, trying to find nature in NYC, solving problems and petting dogs.

Kathryn graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in illustration and works full-time as an illustrator for children’s books, licensing and stationery. You can see more of her work at www.kathrynselbertillustration.com

Klas is an award-winning illustrator who has years of experience working in advertising, design and publishing. He lives in Stockholm with his family. Building a Home and Special Delivery are his first children’s books.

Polly Faber lives in London with her husband, sons, and two black and white cats called Alan and Babs. She worked as a midwife and a sandwich maker before becoming a writer, and has also mashed potatoes for Prince Edward’s dinner. Her best impression is of a tortoise eating a strawberry.

Alongside his novels FloodWorld and DustRoad and his animal-rescue series for younger readers, Cosmic Creatures, Tom Huddleston has written for the official Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space saga and the Warhammer Adventures series for Games Workshop. He is also a musician and film journalist. He enjoys outdoor swimming, chewy sweets and watching too many movies.

S.E. Durrant has wanted to be a writer since she was a child and has always squeezed writing in around the edges of her life. She spent her childhood in Scotland before moving to Leicestershire when she was twelve. She studied Fine Art (painting) and then travelled widely before settling in south London. She has taken on many jobs including working on a stall at Covent Garden market, selling paintings in Venice and teaching art to children. For many years she worked on research bids at the University of London. She now lives in Brighton with her partner and two teenage children, all of whom are taller than she is.

Alison has loved painting and drawing for as long as she can remember. Animals were always a favourite subject, and as a child she copied them obsessively from wildlife books and encyclopaedias.

Alison lives in the beautiful Lake District with her husband Mike,her son Cal and Border Collie, Blue. In her spare time she enjoys walking Blue in the fells, swimming in the lakes (when it’s warm!) and falling asleep during really good films!

Lou Peacock is lucky enough to have one of the best jobs in the world: ‘Publishing Director of Picture Books’ at Nosy Crow. She has a degree in English Literature from Oxford University, and over twenty years’ experience in children’s publishing. She started her editorial career working on novelty books, but has focussed on picture books and poetry for the last 15 years. She often puts her author hat on to write picture books for Nosy Crow and has a notebook full of scribbled ideas.