Abie Longstaff is the eldest of six children and grew up in Australia, Hong Kong and France. She knows all about squabbling and bossing younger sisters around so she began her career as a barrister.

She started writing when her children were born. Her books include The Fairytale Hairdresser series and The Magic Potions Shop books. She has a life-long love of fairy tales and mythology and her work is greatly influenced by these themes.

Abie got the idea for the Trapdoor Mysteries from her parents' house in France. The house is big and old, with lots of rooms and outbuildings. In one of the bedrooms, there is a secret entrance hidden in a fireplace. It leads to a room that was used by the French Resistance during the war. It was the perfect idea for a book!

Abie lives with her family by the seaside in Hove.

Louise Pigott is an illustrator and author from Cambridge, UK. She specializes in creating vibrant, detailed, and atmospheric digital illustrations with a hand-painted feel for children’s picture books. Louise also creates artwork for the greeting card industry, and her work has been printed and sold around the world. She is inspired largely by nature, animals, and all things magical.

Louise graduated with a first class honors degree in graphic design and illustration from De Montfort University, Leicester, in 2009. Her past clients have included Paperchase, Hallmark, Harper Collins, Oxford University Press, American Greetings, Bloomsbury, WHSmith, The Royal Horticultural Society, Noel Tatt, Studio Press, Capstone USA, Curious Fox, and Priddy Books, among others.