Phil Earle (Author) Phil Earle was born, raised and schooled in Hull. His first job was as a care worker in a children's home, an experience that influenced the ideas behind Being Billy . He then trained as a drama therapist and worked in a therapeutic community in south London, caring for traumatized and abused adolescents. After a couple of years in the care sector, Phil chose the more sedate lifestyle of a bookseller, and now works in children's publishing. His novel When the Sky Falls was shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal and won the 2022 British Book Award for Children's Fiction Book of the Year, as well as the Books Are My Bag Readers Award and the Times Children's Book of the Year. Phil lives in south-east London with his wife and children, but Hull will always be home. Jess Rose (Illustrator) Jess Rose is an Author, Illustrator, and Designer born and raised in Yorkshire, England. She loved to draw from a very young age.

At University she studied print and pattern and went onto work in design. Her love for storytelling has always been there, using pictures to create the stories from her imagination for her children at bedtime. Jess has illustrated for several children's books, and her work has been featured on Cbeebies bedtime stories. When Jess isn't working and spending time with her family, she can be found walking in the countryside, wild swimming and practising aerial hoop.