Michael Morpurgo has an unparalleled reputation as a children's storyteller. He was Children's Laureate from 2003 to 2005, has written over 100 books and is the winner of many awards, including the Whitbread Children's Book Award, the Smarties Book Prize, the Blue Peter Award and the Red House Children's Book Award.

His books are translated and read around the world and his hugely popular novel War Horse is now both a critically acclaimed stage play and a highly successful film. Michael and his wife, Clare, live in Devon.

Christian Birmingham is a young artist of outstanding talent. In 1991 he graduated from Exeter College of Art and Design and has since illustrated several highly praised books, including The Magical Bicycle .

Quentin Blake has been drawing ever since he can remember. He taught illustration for over twenty years at the Royal College of Art, of which he is an honorary professor.

He has won many prizes, including the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration, the Eleanor Farjeon Award and the Kate Greenaway Medal, and in 1999 he was appointed the first Children’s Laureate.

In the 2013 New Year’s Honours List he was knighted for services to illustration.

Olivia Lomenech Gill has a first-class degree in Theatre from the University of Hull and an MA in Printmaking from Camberwell College of Arts, and has built her career as a professional fine artist. Olivia's first professional illustration commission, Where My Wellies Take Me, written by Michael and Clare Morpurgo, was shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal and won the English Association Picture Book Award. She is also the illustrator of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling. Olivia lives and works in Northern France with her husband, a paper conservator.