Paddy Hall was born in 1945 and has been telling stories to his brothers and sisters, family and friends, people in the street, with a bit of fire eating, in schools and on conference floors—basically to anyone who will listen, for many years. He earned a living mostly in education, as a drama teacher, youth worker, vice-principal, Ofsted inspector, consultant, governor and broadcaster. He now sits on Boards of Trustees in Education, Health Care and Wildlife Conservation. This is the first story he has written down. He lives, surrounded by dogs, cats, parrots, chickens and fish in Yorkshire with his long-suffering wife, Marti and near enough to his children and grandchildren to read or tell stories, whenever they visit.

The illustrator, Nicola Spencer was born in 1990 and currently lives in East Yorkshire. She graduated from Glasgow School of Art, in 2012, with a BA Hons degree in painting and printmaking. She is a freelance artist and illustrator and has had her artwork exhibited in several galleries. Nicola has worked on a variety of published children’s books, book cover designs, and a comic book and Snort is her most recent project. Nicola has a love of depicting animals in her illustrations and wild birds seen in nature are a constant source of inspiration.