<b>Julia Eccleshare</b> is a writer, broadcaster, and lecturer as well as Children's Books Editor of <i>The Guardian</i>. She has been an editor at Penguin/Puffin Books and at Hamish Hamilton and an editorial advisor to many other publishers including Cambridge University Press and Puffin Modern Classics. She has chaired the Nestl&#233; Smarties Book Awards since 2001, and has served as a judge for the Branford Boase First Novel Prize and for the Whitbread Children's Book Prize. In 2000 she won the Eleanor Farjohn Award in recognition of her contribution to children's books. In addition to numerous anthologies, her books include, <i>Treasure Islands: The Woman's Hour Guide to Children's Reading</i>, <i>A Guide to the Harry Potter Novels, Beatrix Potter to Harry Potter: Portraits of Children's Writers</i> and, with Nicholas Tucker, <i>The Rough Guide to Teenage Books</i>. She lives in London. <b><br><br>Quentin Blake</b> is one of Britain's best-loved and most successful illustrators and children's authors. His first drawings were published in <i>Punch</i> when he was 16. He has illustrated over 300 books and taught at the Royal College of Art, where he was head of the Illustration Department until 1986. He has won many awards and prizes, and was appointed the first Children's Laureate in 1999. In 2005 he was made a Commander of the British Empire, on of Britain&#8217;s highest awards.