Barry grew up in Cornwall. He spent his early years mending pop-up books brought home from the library by his mum. Vast swathes of Sellotape were involved.

In the late 90s, Barry moved to London to study Fine Art at Central Saint Martins. By a twist of fate, he later secured an editorial job at Walker Books. He's been editing children's books ever since.

More recently, Barry has been writing picture books of his own. He loves the knotty puzzle of structuring a story over so few pages. Even better is the rush of excitement when a solution lands in the shower, or while walking the streets of South London. That's a feeling worth its weight in gold.

Mike Byrne grew up on the Wirral near Liverpool before moving to Wales to study Illustration at Glyndwr University. He began his career as a designer for a greetings card company and then became a studio manager for a licensed stationery designer before leaving to fulfil his dream of illustrating children's books.

Mike now lives in Surrey with his wife, cat and two sons where he spends his days doodling and illustrating children's books fuelled only by tea and biscuits. Mike illustrated the Jack's Mega Machines series for Simon & Schuster. The Return of Sproutzilla is his fourth title with Macmillan