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M. G. Leonard is the bestselling writer of children’s books Beetle Boy, the Adventures on Trains series, The Twitchers series and her newest time-travelling mystery series, Time Keys.

Her work had been translated into over forty languages and her books have won many awards, including Sainsbury’s Children’s Book of the Year, British Book Awards Book of the year, and the Branford Boase Award. Her books have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal, shortlisted for an Edgar by the Mystery Writers of America and longlisted for the Wainwright Prize.

Maya lives by the sea with her husband and two sons, a dog called Nell and a tank of exotic beetles. She spent her early career in the music industry before she trained as an actor, before becoming a digital producer for Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the National Theatre and Harry Potter West End.

Maya is one of the founding authors of #Authors4Oceans, with Lauren St John, campaigning to reduce single-use plastics.

Rebecca Lewis-Oakes writes fiction and non-fiction for children.

After her master’s degree in chemistry, Samantha Lewis briefly worked as a science teacher but since then has been a documentary maker, where she has worked on both the production and development of a wide range of science films, including Einstein and The Bomb on Netflix, and science inserts for The One Show. She is currently developing a series of short popular science films. Samantha is based in London.

Elizabeth Laird was born in New Zealand but she grew up in London. She has lived in many parts of the world, including Ethiopia, Malaysia, Iraq and Lebanon. She has been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Book Prize (‘Jake’s Tower’ and ‘The Garbage King’) several times. She has won the Children’s Book Award and the Smarties Prize (‘Hiding Out’). She lives in south-west London with her husband.

Patrice Lawrence was brought up in an Italian-Trinidadian household in Sussex. Her highly-acclaimed novel, Orangeboy has won multiple awards.

Jon Lander is a UK-based author and illustrator. His critically acclaimed illustrations are made lovingly free-hand using watercolours and inks, giving them a pleasing sense of spontaneity and originality.

In 2018 he completed the hugely prestigious MA in Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University.