Dugald Steer was born in 1965 and grew up in Surrey, where his love of books and reading led him to study English Literature and Philosophy at Bristol.

Several jobs later Dugald began working at Templar Publishing, where he worked his way up to Senior Editor, writing and editing many books in house.

He has written more than 100 books for Templar and, after going freelance to concentrate on writing, he authored the first seven books in their hugely successful 'Ology series. Dugald lives near Barcelona in Spain with his wife Ana and his two children.

Helen Ward trained at Brighton School of Art, under the direction of well-known children's illustrators such as Raymond Briggs, Justin Todd and Chris McEwan.

In her final year at Brighton, Helen was awarded the first Walker Prize for Children's Illustration. Awards for Helen's work include The National Art Library Award for The Tin Forest, and, in 2003, the The Cockerel and the Fox was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Award. Helen lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

John Howe was born in 1957 in Vancouver, Canada. He moved to France in 1976 and gained a Diploma in Illustration at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs de Strasbourg in 1981. He has illustrated many French children’s books, but is best known for his Tolkien calendars, book jackets, maps and posters, and he is currently working as a production designer on New Line Cinema’s forthcoming Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.