James Maclaine (Author) James Maclaine has written books about meerkats, general knowledge and manners, come up with countless drawing, doodling and colouring ideas, and devised puzzles and things to do for a range of activity books. His Junior Illustrated Thesaurus is the book that he wishes he'd had as a child. Lizzie Cope (Author) Lizzie grew up in Wiltshire, not far from Stonehenge - she has this to thank for her love of nature, legends and World Heritage sites. Now she lives in London, where she's written books about giraffes, oceans and plastic, and thought up lots of ideas for puzzles and activities, too. Rachel Firth (Author) Rachel spent 11 years studying and teaching philosophy at the universities of London and Oxford before joining Usborne. Since then she has written books on subjects ranging from knights, to food, to philosophy, as well as retelling folk stories, and writing children's versions of numerous novels. Darran Stobbart (Author) Darran spent a decade as children's bookseller in Durham. They studied crime scene and forensic science at university.

It's handier than you'd expect. They collect useless facts, and write about lots of subjects - especially science. They are passionate about stories, music, and will talk about octopuses at great length.