For the past decade, former Top 30 indie-pop bass player William Potter has been writing, illustrating and editing children's titles, including hundreds of comics. These have taken him around the world, to the sea bed, the past and the distant future.

Adam Phillips, formerly Principal Child Psychotherapist at Charing Cross Hospital, London, is a practising psychoanalyst and a visiting professor in the English department at the University of York.

He is the author of numerous works of psychoanalysis and literary criticism, including most recently On Wanting to Change, Attention Seeking, In Writing, Unforbidden Pleasures and Missing Out. He is General Editor of the Penguin Modern Classics Freud translations, and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.

Clare specializes in non-fiction books for children of pre- and primary school age. Her favourite subjects are animals, history, art and culture.

She has been shortlisted for the prestigious Aventis Junior Science Prize, and won a dozen Practical Pre-School Gold Awards.

When she's not writing, Clare likes spending time with her family, taking long walks, going to the theatre and watching contemporary dance - her favourite dancer is Akram Khan.

Ben Hubbard began his writing career at a what's-on newspaper in the 1990s, interviewing bands, actors and artists in his native Wellington, New Zealand.

He later joined the fast-paced world of daily newspaper journalism before packing up shop and moving to England. Here, Ben tied a number of new strings to his bow: magazine editor, book editor, and finally, author.

Today, Ben writes a mix of non-fiction for all ages - preschoolers through to adults. He has penned titles on an eclectic subject range: from space exploration, samurai warriors and medieval castles; to pop music, pets, tornadoes and rugby skills.

Anne Rooney writes non-fiction for children and adults, and fiction for children. She has written more than 100 non-fiction books, many of them on topics in science and technology. She has also taught at the Universities of Cambridge and York, and has been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow and Lector.