Dick King-Smith served in the Grenadier Guards during the Second World War, and afterwards spent twenty years as a farmer in Gloucestershire, the county of his birth. Many of his stories are inspired by his farming experiences. Later he taught at a village primary school. His first book, The Fox Busters, was published in 1978. He wrote a great number of children's books, including The Sheep-Pig (winner of the Guardian Award and filmed as Babe), Harry's Mad, Noah's Brother, The Hodgeheg, Martin's Mice, Ace, The Cuckoo Child and Harriet's Hare (winner of the Children's Book Award in 1995). At the British Book Awards in 1991 he was voted Children's Author of the Year. In 2009 he was made OBE for services to children's literature. Dick King-Smith died in 2011 at the age of eighty-eight.
Stephen Thorne is a British actor of radio, film, stage and television. He is known for Runaway (1984), Lollipop Dragon: The Great Christmas Race (1985) and Doctor Who (1963). He has recorded over 300 unabridged audiobooks including children's stories, which have earned critical acclaim in both the UK and the US. Awards include a Talkies Award 1996 for Enigma by Robert Harris and several Golden Earphones Awards from AudioFile Magazine.