Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham live in Devon, in a house not too far from the sea. Elspeth writes in a room on the ground floor while Mal writes in the attic. Sometimes they meet in the middle to write books like this one. It is Elspeth who finds the seeds the stories grow from. She found the seed for Cloud Tea Monkeys while working on a book about tea. Mal is the author of teenage novels Keeper (9781406303933), Exposure (9781406306491) and Carnegie Medal-winning Tamar (9781406303940). Juan Wijngaard, whose parents are Dutch, was born in South America. He came to London in 1970 and studied Illustration at the Royal College of Art. Since then he has produced over thirty books for children, including Green Finger House, his first book and winner of the Mother Goose Award in 1981, Shakepeare's Globe (9780744592795), Tales of Wonder and Magic (9780744581478)and the Kate Greenaway Medal-winning Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady. He lives with his family in New Mexico, USA.