Peter studied languages at Oxford University, England, and lives in Devon with his wife Lucy and their two children. After a career as a non-fiction editor, he turned to writing for children soon after the birth of his son Theo. Egmont published his very first children's book, the bestselling A Lark in the Ark, which was shortlisted for the Red House award and the inaugural BookTrust Book of the Year awards.

Dodie Smith was born in 1896. She made her name as a playwright before moving to the US in the 1940s where she began writing novels including I Capture the Castle in 1948 and her best-known work, The Hundred and One Dalmatians, in 1956.

Steven Lenton has been the winner of the Waterstones Picture Book of the Month and the Times Children's Book of the Week. He also illustrates fiction for David Baddiel, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, and is the Sainsbury's Prize-winning illustrator of The Nothing to See Here Hotel series.