Phil Earle was born and raised in Hull. His first job was as a care worker in a children’s home.

Phil then chose the more sedate lifestyle of a bookseller, and now works in children’s publishing – when he’s not writing his own children’s books, which have received critical acclaim and been nominated for numerous awards, including a longlisting for the Carnegie Medal.

Sara Ogilvie is an illustrator and printmaker. She was the 2011 Booktrust Best New Illustrators Award winner and was shortlisted for the Best Emerging Illustrator Award 2010.

Dogs Don’t Do Ballet, which she illustrated, was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2010 and the Booktrust Early Years Award 2010. Sara lives in lives in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North of England.