David Brandon was educated at Manchester University and worked in Adult Education at Further Education Colleges and Universities and later for a major national trade union. Researching and writing since 1997 he has had forty titles published of which he regards the 'flagship' to be a collaborative work published by the National Archives, using their resources to examine the transportation of felons to Australia and other penal colonies. His publications reflect his wide interests which include railways, political and social history, London history, topography, local history and the history of crime.

Martin Upham is the author of Britain Explained (2017, revised 2020), editor of A Visitor's Britain (2000) and numerous reference books including Trades Unions of the World (1993). He holds degrees from Manchester, Bristol and Hull universities. While in Hull he contributed to early volumes of the Dictionary of Labour Biography. He was director of AHA International (London campus of the University of Oregon, now GEO London), 2004-14. During 1975-88 he was Research Officer of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation and a member of the OECD iron and steel working party.