Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St Louis, Missouri in 1888. He was educated at Harvard, at the Sorbonne in Paris, and at Merton College, Oxford. His early poetry was profoundly influenced by the French symbolists, especially Baudelaire and Laforgue. In his academic studies he specialised in philosophy and logic. His doctoral thesis was on F. H. Bradley.

He settled in England in 1915, the year in which he married Vivienne Haigh-Wood and also met his contemporary Ezra Pound for the first time. After teaching for a year or so he joined Lloyds Bank in the City of London in 1917, the year in which he published his first volume, Prufrock and Other Observations.

Júlia Sardà has illustrated everything from classic children's books to concept art for merchandise and video games, and covers for the likes of The Clockwork Sparrow, Rose Campion and the Stolen Secret and Beetle Boy by M. G. Leonard.

She is the illustrator of the acclaimed The Liszts, Sweep and The Problim Children, and she illustrated One Day in Wonderland: A Celebration of Lewis Carroll's Alice by Kathleen Krull. Her illustrations of classic stories include Oliver Twist, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz.