Biographical note

John Agard is a playwright, poet and children's writer. He has won numerous awards for his works, including the Paul Hamlyn Award for Poetry and the Cholmondeley Award, as well as having held the position of Poet-in-Residence at both the National Maritime Museum and the BBC. His work has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Award and his poetry has been featured in the AQA English GCSE anthology since 2002, which has helped him to become a firm favourite amongst children and adults alike. Grace Nichols was born and educated in Guyana. She came to Britain in 1977 and since then has published seven poetry collections for adults and many books for children. She has won the PBS Best Single Author's Collection, and is among the poets whose work is studied on the current GCSE syllabus. She has also won both the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and a Cholmondeley Award. Satoshi Kitamura is a Japanese children's picture book author and illustrator, famous for his watercolours and quirky characters.