Hiawyn Oram grew up in South Africa. After graduating in English and Drama from the University of Kwa Zulu Natal, she worked as an advertising copywriter before becoming a full-time writer. She's written more than a 100 children's books starting with the old classic ANGRY ARTHUR Illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura, now an ebook by MEBOOKS. Her work has been published in more than 30 languages including Russian and Chinese, Turkish, Slovak and Polish and won or been short-listed for several awards. She also writes poetry, script and lyrics for musicals and has developed and written for animated TV. Dreamworks in the US have optioned her series starring Rumblewick, an overworked cat to a reluctant witch, as the inspiration for an animated movie. THE VACKEES, a musical for which she wrote the words, is regularly performed across the country and LAST TRAIN TO TOMORROW, about the rescue of 10,000 Jewish children from the holocaust, was performed by the Halle Orchestra, junior choir and actors to standing ovation. Her favourite children's book ever is THE SECRET GARDEN by F.H. Burnett and her vote for best children's movie goes to Disney's JUNGLE BOOK, narrowly pipping KUNG FU PANDA to the post. Hiawyn lives in London where, when not writing, she can be found inventing games for grandchildren and getting messy covering canvasses in paint. Scots girl Lindsey Gardiner studied for her degree in Textiles at Dundee University, and went on to complete an MA at Winchester School of Art. Her first book, 'Here come Poppy and Max' was written whilst still at college, and she has not looked back since. As Lindsey says, the world of children's books is very exciting and I'm over the moon to be part of it. Lindsey's series of young picture books featuring Poppy and Max have proven very popular, selling over 82,000 copies worldwide to date. The loveable pair are set to return in 'Time for Bed Poppy and Max', to be published by Orchard Books in May 2002. Lindsey has illustrated 13 children's titles and has been the sole author of 5, but somehow still finds the time to lecture part time in textile design at Dundee University.
