Philip Pullman was born in Norwich on October 19, 1946. He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in English. He taught at various Oxford middle schools and at Westminster College for eight years. He is the author of many acclaimed novels, plays, and picture books for readers of all ages. His first book, Count Karlstein, was published in 1982. His other books include: The Firework-Maker's Daughter; I Was a Rat!; Clockwork or All Wound Up; and The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. He is also the author of the Sally Lockhart series and the His Dark Materials Trilogy. He has received numerous awards including the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Fiction Award for Northern Lights… (The Golden Compass), the Whitbread Book of the Year Award for The Amber Spyglass, the Eleanor Farjeon Award for children's literature in 2002, and the Astrid Lindgren Award in 2005.
Lucy Hughes-Hallett is a cultural historian and critic. She is the author of this book and of Heroes: Saviours, Traitors and Supermen, and is currently at work on a book on Gabriele d'Annunzio and the origins of fascism. She reviews regularly for the Sunday Times Books Section.