Robert Swindells

Robert Swindells was born in Bradford, one of five children, and left school at the age of 15. He served with the Royal Air Force and did various jobs before he became a teacher. In 1980, he left teaching to write full-time.

Robert has won many awards and is one of only four authors to have won the prestigious Children's Book Award twice (for Brother in the Land and Room 13). He has fans amongst young and old alike for his style of mixing hard-hitting themes with page-turning storytelling. .

Rachel Anderson

Rachel has worked in radio and newspaper journalism and in 1991 won the Medical Journalist's Association Award. Rachel won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award for Paper Faces. When not writing she is involved with the needs and care of children who are socially and mentally challenged.

Alison Allen-Gray

After gaining a BA Hons in English and Drama at university, Alison co-founded a performing arts centre, converted from an old cinema, on the south coast of England. She has co-written two children's musicals and one for adults while developing her acting career, mainly in children's theatre.

Tim Bowler

Tim is an experienced class room teacher, becoming Head of Modern Languages before leaving to become a full time freelance writer and translator. Tim has won numerous awards for his novels, including the prestigious Carnegie Medal.

John Boyne

John Boyne was born in Ireland in 1971 and studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of East Anglia. He is the author of The Thief of Time, The Congress of Rough Riders, and Crippen. He lives in Dublin.

www.johnboyne.co.uk

Henrietta Branford

Henrietta grew up in the New Forest and had a variety of jobs before coming to writing at the age of forty, starting with a regular column in a local newspaper and then moving on to children's fiction. Among her many books are Dipper's Island, White Wolf and three stories about Dimanche Diller, the first of which won the Smarties Book Prize. Fire, Bed and Bone won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and a Smarties Book Prize Bronze Award, as well as being Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal. Henrietta died in April 1999.

Theresa Breslin

Theresa is an award-winning Scottish author whose work has appeared on TV and radio. She has won the Young Book Trust’s Fiddler Award, the Carnegie Medal, Children’s Book Award and has been shortlisted for the South Lanakshire, the Sheffield and North-East Book Awards.

www.theresabreslin.co.uk

Susan Cooper

Susan was born and brought up in England and worked as a journalist before moving to America where she now lives. Susan has won the Newbery Medal and Scottish Arts Council Children’s Books Award and has been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and Smarties prize.

Gillian Cross

Gillian has been writing children's books for over 20 years, and she won not only the Carnegie Medal for Wolf but also the Smarties Prize and the Whitbread Children's Novel Award for The Great Elephant Chase. Gillian's Demon Headmaster has been serialized on BBC television.

Anne Fine

Anne Fine is a much-loved author who has won every major award, including the Carnegie Medal (twice), the Whitbread Children's Novel Award (twice) and the Guardian Children's Literature Award. She has twice been voted Children's Writer of the Year at the British Book Awards and was Children's Laureate from 2001-2003.

Catherine Forde

Catherine was 35 when she started writing, when her son first went to school, and she hasn't stopped since. She always sits at the same desk at home, writing till lunchtime in her pyjamas! Catherine takes her inspiration from her own life and what goes on around her. She is an award-winning writer and her other titles include Fat Boy Swim, Skarrs, and The Drowning Pond.

Philip Gross

Philip has won several prizes for his poetry and his collection The Wasting Game was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award. He is now Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Glamorgan.

Julie Hearn

Julie worked as a journalist before completing a Masters in Women's Studies at Oxford University. An idea for her Masters thesis became the inspiration for Follow Me Down, Julie's first novel.

Geraldine McCaughrean

Geraldine has written over 130 books and plays for both adults and children and has won the Carnegie Medal, Guardian Children's Fiction Award, Whitbread Children's Book of the Year, Smarties Bronze (four times), UK Readers' Association Award, and Blue Peter Book of the Year.

Katherine Paterson

Katherine is an internationally acclaimed author who has won the Newbury Medal (twice), the National Book Award for Children's Literature (USA) twice, and the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award.

James Riordan

During service in the RAF James learned Russian and went on to become Professor of Russian in Bradford. He has won and been shortlisted for the NASEN Special Education Needs Award (for Sweet Clarinet and The Gift), shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Book Award and won the South Lanarkshire Book Award.

Paul Shipton

Paul grew up in Manchester and went to university in Cambridge. He spent several years teaching English as a foreign language before becoming an editor of school books in English and science. He now works as a freelance writer and editor and lives in Cambridge with his wife and two daughters.

Malorie Blackman

Malorie was born in London in 1962. She studied computer science and worked at a number of jobs before becoming a full time writer. Malorie gained great success with her first novel Hacker, which won two major children's book awards and with a number of other books including Pig Heart Boy which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Malorie still lives in London with her husband and daughter Elizabeth.

Francesco D'Adamo

Francesco D'Adamo is an Italian author, well-known for his adult fiction novels. He began writing fiction for young adults in 1999, and soon gained international fame. Iqbal is his third novel for young adults. He lives in Milan, Italy.

Ann Leonori translated Iqbal into English. She is an American who has lived in Italy for more than forty years. As well as her translation work, she is also a teacher.

Siobhan Dowd

Siobhan lived in Oxford with her husband, Geoff, before tragically dying from cancer in August 2007, aged 47. She was both an extraordinary writer and an extraordinary person. Her first novel, A Swift Pure Cry, won the Branford Boase Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and Booktrust Teenage Prize. Her second novel, The London Eye Mystery, won the 2007 NASEN & TES Special Educational Needs Children's Book Award. Bog Child is Siobhan's third published novel. All royalties from her books will go to a trust created just before her death, the Siobhan Dowd Trust, a charity set up to support the joy of reading for young people in areas of social deprivation. Find out more about Siobhan and her books at www.siobhandowd.co.uk.