Ted Hughes was born in Yorkshire in 1930. His first book, The Hawk in the Rain, was published by Faber and Faber in 1957, and was followed by many volumes of poetry and prose for both children and adults, including How The Whale Became, Under the North Star, Tales from Ovid and Birthday Letters. He was Poet Laureate from 1984 and was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1998, the year in which he died. Laura Carlin is a graduate of the Royal College of Art and the winner of several awards, including the Quentin Blake Award, the 2004 National Magazine Award and the V&A Book Illustration Award. Her work has featured in Vogue, the Guardian and The New York Times and her other books include The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett and Michael Morpurgo's The Kites are Flying! Laura was awarded an honourable mention in the Bologna Ragazzi Award fiction category for The Iron Man. She lives in London.