Jeanne Willis was born in St Albans, Herts, in 1959. As a young girl she sought adventures though writing comic strips and books.

After completing a copywriting course at Watford Art College she went on to work in advertising. Today, Jeanne is an internationally renowned, full-time writer and has published over a hundred books ranging from picture books including The Bog Baby and Who's in the Loo?, to YA, poetry and fiction.

She has won several awards, including the Children's Book Award, the Silver Smarties Prize and has also been shortlisted for the Whitbread Award.

Adele Geras was born in Jerusalem on March 15th, 1944. Her father was in the Colonial Office, so she moved around all over the place while she was very young: Nigeria, North Borneo, the Gambia.

She attended boarding-school in England (Roedean) from the age of 11. After Roedean she graduated from St Hilda's College, Oxford. She has worked as an actress and as a French teacher.

Gareth Jones is a Fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School and a visiting professor at Spain's IE Business School in Madrid.

Sally Prue is the award-winning author of Cold Tom (Branford Boase Award 2002). She has also written for A&C Black in the White Wolves series.