Anthony Browne is an internationally acclaimed author and illustrator of children's books, with over 40 titles to his name, including Gorilla and Zoo. In 2000 he became the first British illustrator to receive the highest international honour for illustration, the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Michael Rosen was born in 1946 in north London. One of the best-known figures in the children's book world, he is renowned for his work as a poet, performer, broadcaster and scriptwriter. As an author and by selecting other writers’ works for anthologies he has been involved with over 140 books.

Jacqueline Wilson was born in Bath in 1945. She started her career as a teenage journalist with D.C. Thomson, writing for the magazine Jackie, which was named after her. She has since written many popular books for children which have been translated into over thirty languages and have sold over ten million copies.

The award-winning children's writer Michael Morpurgo was born in 1943. He worked as a teacher for ten years before leaving to set up a charity, Farms for City Children, with his wife Clare. He is the author of many much-loved books for children, such as Kensuke's Kingdom, War Horse and Private Peaceful.

Born in the Midlands, Anne Fine studied politics and history before publishing her first children's book, The Summer House Loon, in 1978. Since then she has written numerous books for both children and adults, including the award-winning Flour Babies, Bill's New Frock and Goggle-Eyes.

Quentin Blake was born in 1932 and read English at Cambridge before attending Chelsea Art College. His first drawings were published in Punch when he was 16. His distinctive illustrations have since appeared in more than 250 books by 80 different writers including, of course, Roald Dahl.