The Great Piratical Rumbustification

Margaret Mahy was born in New Zealand and has loved telling stories all her life. She has published well over a hundred titles and won several major prizes and awards, including The Order of New Zealand, for her internationally acclaimed contribution to children’s literature. She has twice won the prestigious Carnegie Medal (The Haunting, 1982, and The Changeover, 1984). Margaret lives in the South Island of New Zealand, in a house which she partially built herself, overlooking Governor’s Bay.

Quentin Blake has been drawing ever since he can remember and has always made his living as an illustrator. He has also taught, and for eight years was Head of the Illustration department at the Royal College of Art. Quentin Blake was made an OBE in 1988 and, in the words of The Guardian, was “already a national institution” when he was appointed the first Children’s Laureate in 1999.