Vivian French is a highly acclaimed children's author who has written more than 250 books during the course of her career, including Caterpillar, Butterfly, The Tales from the Five Kingdoms series and Yucky Worms.

Her recent work includes the critically acclaimed picture book The Most Wonderful Thing in the World and junior fiction The Adventures of Alfie Onion, The Cherry Pie Princess and The Witches' Midnight Feast.

Vivian teaches on the illustration course at Edinburgh School of Art, and helped to found the mentoring scheme Picture Hooks for aspiring young illustrators. She lives in Edinburgh

Catherine Veitch trained as an infant primary teacher before working as an editor and writer for twenty years in children's magazines and books. Today, when she's not walking her Sheltie dog, Arthur, Catherine enjoys writing and creating content for children's story, puzzle, activity and early learning books.Shiori Saito was born and raised in Japan and is a multidisciplinary artist, illustrator and designer, who is currently based in Calgary, Canada.

Her playful artwork combines digital and organic media, which is inspired by everyday moments, nature and happy accidents! From illustrations to interactive installations, her creative output is diverse. One thing in common is that she loves to use humour to not only make people smile, but also add warmth in narrative.

Mark Beech has been a freelance illustrator for the last ten years, and nowadays works a great deal in the world of children’s publishing.

From picture books for early readers, to education and fiction books for older readers, he has even made a picture book for the ipad, which allows him to animate illustrations.

He also designs greeting cards, and has even been known to work in the world of advertising from time to time.