David Almond is the author of Skellig, My Name is Mina, Counting Stars, The Savage, Island, A Song for Ella Grey, The Colour of the Sun and many other novels, stories, picture books, opera librettos, songs and plays.

His work is translated into 40 languages, and is widely adapted for stage and screen. His major awards include the Carnegie Medal, two Whitbread Awards, the Eleanor Farjeon Award, the Michael L Printz Award (USA), Le Prix Sorcieres (France) and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. In 2010 he won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the world's most prestigious prize for children's authors.

David speaks at festivals and conferences around the world. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. He is widely regarded as one of the most exciting, inspirational and innovative children's authors writing today. He has one amazing daughter. He lives in Bath and in Newcastle, the city in which he was born.

Beatrice Alemagna studied at the Graphic School in Urbino, Italy and began her career as a poster artist. She then went on to write and illustrate for children and has now published 30 books, which have been translated widely. Beatrice won the Andersen Prize in 2010 and has been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award four times; her picture book On a Magical Do-Nothing Day was voted by the New York Times as one of the ten best illustrated children's books of 2017 as well as being awarded the Golden Medal for Original Art by the Society of Illustrators. Beatrice is a native Italian now living in Paris.