Felicity Yeoh lives in London with her (totally normal) family and grew up in England, but visited Singapore and Malaysia every year. She loves reading out loud, and volunteered as an early years classroom reader and at the library throughout school and university. She works in finance.
She writes poems and songs for her three children, aged 1, 3 and 5. Her poems have been commended for Faber’s FAB Prize (2020, 2021, 2022) and Penguin WriteNow 2021. Her adult fiction has been shortlisted for the Mo Siewcharran, Morley, Owned Voices, Joffe Books, London Library Emerging Writers and Book Edit Prizes and she received a London Writers Award in 2022. As a student, her poetry was awarded the Sam Hadwell Memorial Prize from Queens’ College, Cambridge and she was a Foyle Young Poet of the Year. Her short story, The Oldest Tale, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004.
Hannah represents Felicity for her work for children.
Emily Snape is a children’s author and illustrator living in London. Her most recent middle grade book is Daniel’s Double Trouble which is about a boy who travels through time when he sneezes. She loves strong coffee, notebooks and reading about the lives of flawed fictional characters. Emily has three children, Leo, Fin and Flo who keep her on her toes and give her lots of inspiration for stories. Emily strongly believes life is too short for matching pairs of socks.
Emily is available for illustration commissions.
Jon Lander is an author and illustrator who lives in Hastings, and grew up in Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
His debut picture book, 10 Silly Children, published by Pavilion (now Farshore), was warmly received by the critics, with plaudits from the Guardian, the Bookseller and the Book Trust. It was longlisted for the 2022 Klaus Flugge Prize, and was featured in the Book Trust’s Top 100 Great Books Guide 2022.
Having originally trained as a fine artist at Byam Shaw School of Art in London (graduating in 2011), he realised he was always making artworks that involved drawing, making and writing books, so it was a natural progression to return to his home town and attend the masters in children’s book illustration at Cambridge School of Art (graduating in 2018).
As well as working on his second picture book, Jon is now writing and illustrating books for older children too.
For many years, he worked as a teaching assistant in schools across the country (and even Spain). He lives with his wife, Laura Ribbons, who is an artist.
Abi Elphinstone grew up in Scotland where she spent most of her childhood running wild across the moors, hiding in tree houses and building dens in the woods. After being coaxed out of her tree house, she studied English at Bristol University and then worked as an English teacher in Tanzania, Africa and Berkshire and London, UK. She is the bestselling author of Saving Neverland, The Unmapped Chronicles (Everdark, Rumblestar, Jungledrop, The Crackledawn Dragon), Sky Song, The Dreamsnatcher trilogy and, for younger readers, The Snow Dragon and The Frost Goblin.
When she’s not writing Abi volunteers for Beanstalk, speaks in schools and travels the world looking for her next story. Her latest adventures include living with the Kazakh Eagle Hunters in Mongolia and dog-sledding across the Arctic.