Eva Ibbotson was born in Vienna in 1925 and fled to England with her family when the Nazis came to power. She became a writer while bringing up her four children in Newcastle. Her bestselling novels have been published and loved by readers around the world.

Her novels for adults, all rich historical romances, convey her deep love of the arts, the Austrian countryside, and the importance of belonging.

In 2001, her children's novel Journey to the River Sea won the Nestle Gold Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.

Eva passed away peacefully in October 2010 at the age of eighty-five.

Dr Laura Wood is a bestselling, award winning academic and writer. She is the winner of the Montegrappa Scholastic Prize for New Children's Writing and the author of the 'Poppy Pym' series, the Blue Peter Book Prize-shortlisted Vote for Effie several young adult novels including A Sky Painted Gold and A Single Thread of Moonlight and, for adults, Under Your Spell.

Laura loves Georgette Heyer novels, Fred Astaire films, travelling to far flung places, recipe books, Jilly Cooper, poetry, cosy woollen jumpers, Edith Nesbit, crisp autumn leaves, Jack Gilbert, new stationery, sensation fiction, salted caramel,Rufus Sewell's cheek-bones, dogs, and drinking lashings of ginger beer.