Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell biography

Paul Stewart was born in 1955 in London and lived for a year in Muswell Hill before moving to Morden in Southwest London, "the end of the Northern line".

He is a graduate of Lancaster University and of the University of East Anglia’s creative writing course.  For several years he taught English as a foreign language in Sri Lanka.  Returning to England, he became a primary school teacher before giving up to write full time.

His first book was published in 1988 and he has since worked for a number of publishers and had over twenty titles published.  His titles for Random House Children’s Books include The Wakening, The Midnight Hand and Dogbird as well as the Edge Chronicles - the ninth title in this series, The Clash of the Sky Galleons, is published in September 2006.  There are also three books in the Far Flung Adventures – Hugo Pepper, the third in the series, was published in April 2006.  The latest in the duo’s Barnaby Grimes series; Legion of the Dead, will be released in paperback in January 2009.

Paul Stewart lives in Brighton with his wife, a primary school teacher, and their two children.

Chris Riddell is familiar to both children and adults for his distinctive line drawings with their clever caricature, fascinating detail and often enchanting fantasy elements.  He studied illustration   at   Brighton Polytechnic and has illustrated several picture books including  Something Else by Kathryn Cave (Viking), which was shortlisted for the Smarties Prize and which won the Unesco Award.  The Swan’s Stories by Brian Alderson (Walker) was shortlisted for the 1997 Kurt Maschler Award and Castle Diary (Walker) was shortlisted for the 1999 Kate Greenaway Medal. 

In addition to his children’s book work, Chris is a renowned political cartoonist whose work appears regularly in The Observer, The Literary Review and The New Statesman.  One of his claims to fame is that he was the first cartoonist to depict William Hague in shorts; an illustration that William Hague subsequently bought! Chris Riddell lives in Brighton with his wife and children.