Julia Donaldson is a top selling author of children’s books with over 65 million books sold worldwide. Among her greatest successes are Room on the Broom, The Gruffalo and Stick Man (all illustrated by Axel Scheffler), What the Ladybird Heard (illustrated by Lydia Monks) and The Giant Jumperee (illustrated by Helen Oxenbury). Julia’s books have been translated into over 72 languages.

Julia lives in the UK with her husband Malcolm and divides her time between Sussex in the South and Edinburgh in Scotland. From 2011 to 2013, she was the UK Children’s Laureate. Julia writes fiction, poems, plays and songs, as well as picture books. The TV films of The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom have both been nominated for Oscars.

Sebastien Braun was born in Strasbourg, the hometown of Gustav Dore and Tomi Ungerer (his heroes). As a child he spent countless hours drawing, but at secondary school there were no art classes, so he filled his homework with doodles and portraits of his teachers.

At university he initially studied history - fortunately, the building was shared with the art department, and when he saw the students sketching, knew he had to change.

After that, he spent a few years teaching applied art to sixth formers, before taking the plunge as a freelance illustrator. His first commissions were for magazines in Paris, and when he moved to London, he developed his portfolio for children's books.

Apart from creating pictures, Seb's favourite pastimes are making toys from wood, playing with his children and climbing the Cotswold hills on his vintage road bike.