The 101 Dalmatians

Dodie Smith was an English children’s novelist and playwright best known for the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956).

My dad was an army bandmaster and director of music. Having a dad in the army meant that we moved around a fair bit when I was a child, so I lived in Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong as well as places in England, including in Devon where I live now. I recently worked out that I went to ten different schools, or eleven if you count going to the same school twice (that was in Hong Kong). Imagine having that ‘first day at school’ feeling eleven times! But often there were other children whose parents were in the services too and who had also changed schools a lot, so I didn’t feel too weird. I have always enjoyed words but it took me quite a while to discover that I wanted to be a children’s writer. After university I worked for a short time as a journalist and then for a much longer time editing and sometimes writing books for grown ups. But I always liked writing funny stories and verses. When I was best man at my brother John’s wedding I even wrote my best man’s speech in rhyme. A few years later, my wife read that speech and said I should do more of that kind of thing. After we had our first child, Theo, and then (in 2001) moved from London to Devon, I started taking children’s writing seriously. I joined a creative writing group and in 2004 took a course run by the excellent Arvon Foundation. In 2005 I sent the text of A Lark in the Ark to fourteen publishers. Twelve of them said no thanks, but Egmont accepted it. I still have a copy of their cheque on my wall. (Bio via peterbently.com)

Steven Lenton hails from Cheshire, England, where he spent many a school holiday working in the family pom-pom Factory, packing poms and designing new products. This somewhat fluffy start to his career did no harm, though, as since leaving the factory, he gained a BA and MA in animation and has become a successful animator and art director for children’s television, including work on the BAFTA-winning The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers and as co-director of a Teletubby pop video. Steven also designs greeting cards and prints. He currently lives with his partner Jay and his dog in Crouch End where he dunks endless amounts of hob-nobs (other biscuits are available) in big red spotty cups of tea whilst listening to Radio 2.