Andy Stanton has written eight books about Mr Gum, along with further successful fiction and picture book titles. He was overall winner of the Red House Children's Book Award in 2007 for You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum! and in 2008 won the inaugural Roald Dahl Funny Prize for Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear. He has twice won the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Book With Pictures, and been shortlisted for a host of other awards.

Neal Layton has illustrated more than 40 books, working with award-winning authors such as Cressida Cowell, Michael Rosen and Roger McGough. He has won the Smarties Book Prize twice, for Bartholomew and the Bug, and Oscar and Arabella, both of which he wrote and illustrated, and won the same award for That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown, written by Cressida Cowell. He has won numerous other awards both in the UK and overseas, and been shortlisted for many more, including the Red House and Blue Peter book awards and the Booktrust Early Years Award. He lives with his family in Portsmouth.