René Goscinny (1926–77), born in Paris, lived most of his early years in Buenos Aires and New York. He returned to France in the 1950s where he met Jean-Jacques Sempé and together they created the character for Nicholas, the famous schoolboy. He later worked with Alberto Uderzo, on making the adventures of Asterix the Gaul. A prolific and internationally successful children´s author, he is also the creater of Lucky Luke and Dingodossiers , among others. He also received Césars for his numerous animated cartoons. Jean-Jacques Sempé (b.1932) is one of the world’s most successful illustrators and cartoonists. He is the illustrator of the classic children’s-book character, Nicholas, and author of a collection of some thirty albums of his cartoons and graphic novels, all published or to be published by Phaidon.

His world-renowned illustrations and cartoons are featured on the cover of the New Yorker and in Paris Match. Anthea Bell was awarded the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Helen and Kurt Wolff Prize (USA) in 2002 for her translation of W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz . Her many works of translation from French and German (for which she has received several other awards) include the Nicholas books and, with Derek Hockridge, the entire Asterix the Gaul saga by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo.