Richmal Crompton was born in 1890 and is best known for her thirty-eight books featuring William Brown, which were published between 1922 and 1970. Born in Lancashire, Crompton won a scholarship to Royal Holloway in London, where she trained as a schoolteacher, graduating in 1914, before turning to writing full-time in 1923. Alongside the William novels, Crompton wrote forty-one novels for adults, as well as nine collections of short stories. She died in 1969.

After briefly considering careers in space travel, cookery and being a rabbit, Alex T. Smith finally decided to become an illustrator.

Soon after he graduated from art school he won second place in the Macmillan Prize for Children's Illustration and has gone on to have a stellar career, creating such favourite picture book characters as Claude from Claude in the City, Claude on Holiday and Claude Going for Gold.