John Agard was born in Guyana and moved to Britain in 1977, where he was soon recognized as an original and inspiring writer. He has published more than 50 collections of poetry and received many accolades. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 2007. Awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2012, he received the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021. He is a nominee (along with Jackie Morris) from British IBBY for the international Astrid Lindgren Award in 2025. He is married to fellow-poet Grace Nicholls, and they live in Lewes, West Sussex. Shirley Hottier was winner of the FAB illustration award in 2021. She is French and graduated in Paris with a degree in architecture.

As an illustrator she has a passion for promoting diversity, drawing on her own family tradition of multiple cultures to create warm and lively scenes and characters. Shirley specializes in digital art, incorporating a rich palette of vivid colors and varied textures. She lives in Edinburgh.