David Almond (Author) David Almond is the author of Skellig, My Name is Mina, Counting Stars, The Savage, Island, A Song for Ella Grey, The Colour of the Sun and many other novels, stories, picture books, opera librettos, songs and plays. His work is translated into 40 languages, and is widely adapted for stage and screen. His major awards include the Carnegie Medal, two Whitbread Awards, the Eleanor Farjeon Award, the Michael L Printz Award (USA), Le Prix Sorcières (France) and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. In 2010 he won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the world's most prestigious prize for children's authors. David speaks at festivals and conferences around the world. He is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. He is widely regarded as one of the most exciting, inspirational and innovative children's authors writing today. He has one amazing daughter.

He lives in Bath and in Newcastle, the city in which he was born. www.davidalmond.com Kirsti Beautyman (Illustrator) Kirsti Beautyman is an illustrator and children's book author based in Newcastle Upon Tyne. You'll often find her in her small cosy studio, with her feet on a portable radiator, clutching a mug of hot Ribena while she works on her latest projects. After graduating from Edinburgh college of Art in 2016 and moving to the North East, she began to work as a freelance Illustrator. Her life long love of reading and narrative imagery motivated her to apply to the Picture Hooks scheme in a hope to focus on writing and illustrating children's books. She was awarded 'Picture Hooks Illustrator of the Year' in 2017 and has worked on multiple books since.

In her most recent years Kirsti has turned to working digitally, however, her illustration still always begin as a loose pencil sketch in one of many battered sketchbooks. Her experience in print making at university continues to inform her choice of colour palette and use of layers which apply texture and create contrast in her work.