Nick Dyrenfurth is a Melborune-based writer and academic. He is the Executive Director of the John Curtin Research Centre. Nick is the author and/or editor of eight non-fiction books, including A Little History of the Australian Labor Party (2011), Mateship: A Very Australian History (2015), 'A powerful influence on Australian affairs': A new history of the AWU (2017), Heroes and Villains: the Rise and Fall of the Early Australian Labor Party (2011), and Getting the Blues: The Future of Australian Labor (2019).

Nick is a leading media commentator writing for The Age, The Saturday Paper, The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review, Daily Telegraph, The Monthly, and regularly appears on radio and television. Manticores are not Real is his first children's book. Nick lives in Melbourne with his partner and three children.

Andrew McIntosh is a part time digital illustrator from Melbourne, Australia. Ever since Andrew can remember, he has had a pencil and paper on hand. He started his artistic career in the video games industry focusing on Pixel art, 3D modelling and UI design.

In his spare time, Andrew paints whimsical characters and scenes which are greatly inspired by nature. Since 2015 he has pursued his aspiration to illustrate children’s books and hopes to write one of his own in the future