Anna Branford was born in the Isle of Man and spent her early childhood in Sudan and Papua New Guinea before moving to Australia. Creative writing was her favourite subject at school and she wrote stories in all these different countries. Anna is a doll maker and a sociology lecturer at Victoria University. Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot is her first published work for Walker Books Australia. Born in Pahiatua, New Zealand, Kat completed a Diploma in Fine Arts (majoring in printmaking), then spent a few years exhibiting and travelling the world. In 1995 she moved to Melbourne to study Graphic Design at Swinburne University. After gaining an Honours degree, she worked at various Melbourne design studios before establishing her own business, Designland, with her partner in life and design, Andrew Budge. Since then Kat has refocused on her love of image making, incorporating illustration in many of Designland’s projects, as well as undertaking regular commissions for a range of clients