Allan Ahlberg was born in 1938 in South London, and grew up in the Black Country. He worked as a teacher, postman, grave digger, soldier and plumber's mate before he became a full-time writer. He met his wife and creative partner, Janet at teacher training college. It was because Janet wanted to illustrate a book that Allan wrote his first book, the Brick Street boys. After that, together they wrote 37 books. Janet died in 1994 and Ahlberg discontinued his writing career for a few years before picking it up again.
Bruce Ingman illustrated for magazines such as British Vogue and Elle and taught at several art colleges before publishing his first children's book. He lives and works in London.