The Illustrator: This is Matilda Harrison's first picture book for Bloomsbury. She is half-British and half-Australian, and currently lives in North London.

Her other illustrative work is primarily editorial; she works for Vogue, The Independent, Elle, The Economist, The Telegraph and The Times.

A political firebrand and an unorthodox thinker during his lifetime, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was the author of a large body of poetical works that left a deep mark in his own and later generations of writers.

A veteran of the American Civil War who fought at Shiloh and Chickamauga in the Union ranks, Bierce became one of America's best-known writers and journalists, admired for his insolent, entertaining and sometimes courageous columns.

In 1913 he set off for Mexico, then in the throes of revolution, and was never seen again. Ralph Steadman is the author of many illustrated books including Sigmund Freud, I Leonardo, The Big I Am, The Scar-Strangled Banner, Alice and Animal Farm. His most recent publication is the novel, Doodaaa.