Beatrix has created some of the best-loved characters in children's literature

Beatrix Potter was born in London in 1866. During her rather lonely childhood and later, as a young woman, she studied art and natural history.

She acquired her love and knowledge of the countryside during family holidays, at first in Scotland and then in the Lake District.

She started her career as children's author and illustrator in 1901 when she was thirty-five. In the years before the First World War, demand for her work was so great that she was publishing an average of two new stories a year.

As she became financially independent, she was able to buy some land in the Lake District and in 1913, on her marriage to solicitor William Heelis, she moved to live there permanently.

For the last thirty years of her life, writing and illustrating gave place to a second career as a sheep farmer and countryside conservationist.

Her little books never lost their popularity however and today they sell in their millions, translated into numerous languages, and the pleasures of those timeless tales continue to be enjoyed by children all over the world.

Charles Santore is a renowned, New York Times bestselling children's book illustrator whose work has been widely exhibited in museums and celebrated with recognitions such as the prestigious Hamilton King Award, the Society of Illustrators Award of Excellence, and the Original Art 2000 Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators.

Santore is best known for his luminous interpretations of classic children's stories such as The Night Before Christmas, The Little Mermaid and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Paul Revere's Ride, which was named 2004 Children's Book of the Year for Poetry by the Bank Street College Children's Book Committee.

His illustrations for The Wizard of Oz, which is widely considered to be the quintessential illustrated version, were used as the scenic backdrops for a major television performance of the work. More than 6 million copies of his books have been purchased. Charles Santore lives and works in Philadelphia.