Geraldine McCaughrean has written many books and plays, including Peter Pan in Scarlet, which was one of the most successful children's titles of 2006. Geraldine has won the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Book Award (three times), the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Smarties Bronze Award (four times), the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Geraldine is the first author to have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal six times. Maria Nilsson grew up in Sweden but moved to London in 2001. She studied BA Illustration at the University of Westminster. After graduating she worked as a freelance illustrator until the birth of her children. When they started toddling, Maria took up her pencil again and in 2009 was shortlisted for the Picture This competition (Macmillan and Waterstones' search for a new illustrator).