Gillian Shields is a long-term contributor to the Bloomsbury list and is the author of the extremely successful Mermaid SOS series. Gillian lives in Burwash Common, East Sussex.
Helen Turner was born in 1980 and grew up in the North East of England. After receiving her BA Honours in Graphic Design at Nottingham Trent University in 2003, Helen found her big break illustrating the problem pages for Mizz magazine and star signs for Bliss magazine.

In 2005 she started illustrating for children's educational books. Working for Oxford University Press and QED Publishing, Helen has illustrated a wide variety of interesting characters - from alien teachers and tyrannosaurus rex to children with magic socks and talking dolls!