The youngest of four children, Mark Lowery was born in North Wales in 1979 and grew up in Preston, Lancs. Although he maintains that his upper body is of average size, many people have suggested that he has an unusually large head and stumpy legs.

His lifelong dream of playing for Everton was cruelly shattered at 18, when he realised that he was actually useless at football. Following this bombshell, he trained to become a primary school teacher. He denies that this was only so that he could be taller than the majority of people in his workplace.

Following a few years of teaching in Leeds, he studied for an MA in Writing for Children at the University of Winchester. After graduating he taught at schools in Ipswich and Italy, whilst writing in his spare time. He currently works part-time at a school near Cambridge. His claims that he is “the staff-room eye-candy” have been strenuously ridiculed by all those who work alongside him.

Mark is a fluent speaker of terrible Italian. He enjoys football, swimming, snowboarding, reading, playing guitar and running around. However, as a father of three small children, he has recently put some of these interests on hold in favour of nappy-changing and baby-entertaining. He has a real-life human wife who definitely exists, and his favourite meal is steak pie, mash and beans. He is yet to find a cake that he doesn’t like.

Hannah Shaw studied illustration at the University of Brighton and graduated in 2004. She has since created a number of critically acclaimed award-winning children’s books, including Evil Weasel, which won the Cambridgeshire Children's Picture Book Award.

Her recent Stan Stinky series is the first of her own creations for older children. She also illustrated the popular Disgusting Sandwich by Gareth Edwards and The Great Hamster Massacre series by Katie Davies as well as The Fabulous Phartlehorn Affair by ML Peel.

Hannah currently lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire.