Collins Big Cat Pirate by Susan Gates (author) and Maddy McClellan (illustrator)

Susan Gates is a widely respected author of one-off novels inluding Cry wolf – Winner of the Sheffield Children’s Book Award – Pagans, The Hummingbird Secret, Batty the Hero and The Magician’s Pigeon, among others. The Revolting Rabbles is her first series.

Maddy McClellan, illustrator of Song for a Princess, knew from a very early age that she wanted to be an artist, and still remembers the thrill of being given a brand new box of paints or pens and loving the rainbow of colours waiting to be used. She was happiest when drawing and making up stories, usually about rabbit families or tigers.

She went on to do a foundation course in art at Brighton Art College, then specialized in illustration at Anglia Polytechnic, finishing her studies with a sequential illustration post graduate degree at Brighton.

Maddy has worked within a wide range of commissions, from editorial publishing to greetings cards, but now works mainly illustrating children’s picture books. She remains passionate about all aspects of her creativity and exhibits her paintings and prints when possible at an annual artist’s open house.

She is currently developing ‘Magic Tiger,’ workshops, for children to explore their creativity, and to develop a passion for expression through art.

After many years living in Brighton, Maddy now lives in a village at the foot of the South Downs with her two young sons, husband and pets, where she works in an old flint barn, visited by the odd chicken and duck.