This book was published 2001 by Oxford University Press .

John Rowe Townsend was born in Leeds in 1922. He is the author of many books for children including The Intruder, The Islanders and Written for Children, an examination of children's literature. Edward Eager (1911-1964) worked primarily as a playwright and lyricist. It wasn't until 1951, while searching for books to read to his young son, that he began writing children's stories. Quentin Blake is the internationally acclaimed illustrator of more than two hundred award-winning books, including several classics by Roald Dahl. He lives in London. Sir Philip Sherlock is a professor at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. Geraldine McCaughrean is the author of The Odyssey and other titles in the acclaimed Oxford Illustrated Classics series.