Marcus Rashford MBE is Manchester United's iconic number 10 and an England International footballer. During the lockdown imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Marcus teamed up with the food distribution charity FareShare to cover the free school meal deficit for vulnerable children across the UK, raising in excess of 20 million pounds. Marcus successfully lobbied the British Government to u-turn policy around the free food voucher program - a campaign that has been deemed the quickest turnaround of Government policy in the history of British politics - so that 1.3 million vulnerable children continued to have access to food supplies whilst schools were closed during the pandemic. In response to Marcus's End Child Food Poverty campaign, the British Government committed £400 million to support vulnerable children across the UK, supporting 1.7 million children for the next 12 months. In October 2020, he was appointed MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours. Marcus has committed himself to combating child poverty in the UK and his book You Are a Champion is an inspiring guide for children about reaching their full potential.
Abiola Bello is a Nigerian-British, prize-winning, bestselling children's and YA author who was born and raised in London. She is an advocate for diversity in books for young people. She's the author of the award-winning fantasy series Emily Knight, Love in Winter Wonderland, Only for the Holidays and The Love Dare. She is contributed to The Very Merry Murder Club and is the co-writer of The Breakfast Club Adventures: The Movie Monste r. Abiola won The Black British Business Awards 2023 for Arts and Media and The London Book Fair Trailblazer Awards 2018. She is the co-founder of Hashtag Press, Hashtag BLAK and The Diverse Book Awards. She has appeared in Cosmopolitan , Female First Magazine, The Mirror , BBC1XTRA to name a few. Marta Kissi studied BA Illustration & Animation at Kingston University and MA Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art.
Her favourite part of being an illustrator is bringing stories to life by designing charming characters and the wonderful worlds they live in. She shares a studio with her husband James.