AW Simmonds

AW Simmonds has been a secondary school music teacher for over twenty years and following a dragon-drawing contest with his family, decided to turn his hand to writing for children. He is based in the North West of England.

When not teaching or writing, he likes to play music with friends, enjoy the pub quiz and spend time with his family.

Alex Crump

Alex is a freelance artist/illustrator who lives with his young family (and pets!) near Swindon. He can often be found up in his loft studio creating work in a myriad of media from paint and pencil to iPad and ‘procreate’. Alex’s usual commissions are for bold and colourful animals getting up to all sorts of capers in stories, but he’s also been sought after for creating work for educational schemes and older readers. Some of his more memorable commissions have been working with the Great Bustard Group (on Salisbury plain) where he survived a face to face encounter with ‘Fergus’ the flightless ‘Tigerbird’ and having his work on snakebite education adopted by local governments in India. His past careers as a teacher, zookeeper (as well as other current roles of storyteller and museum educator – you may spot him in ‘Steam’ one day!) allow him to bring plenty of knowledge and ideas to the work he creates. When not in the studio he likes to be out and about in the Wiltshire countryside with his family and playing his guitar and mandolin (but not all at the same time!)