The Ice Children: The must-read magical mystery winter adventure for all the family

M.G. Leonard has made up stories since she was a girl, but back then adults called them lies or tall tales and she didn’t write them down. As a grown up, her favourite things to create stories about are beetles, birds, and trains. Her books have been translated into over forty languages and won many awards. She is the vice president of the insect charity Buglife, and a founding author of Authors4Oceans. She lives in Brighton with her husband, two sons, a dog called Nell, and a variety of exotic beetles. She is the bestselling writer of children’s books such as The Ice Children, Beetle Boy, the Adventures on Trains series and The Twitchers books.

Penny Neville-Lee was raised on a healthy diet of Saturday cartoons and MGM musicals. Never happier than when creating, she spent her early years drawing and making and was rarely found without a doodle somewhere in the margins. Penny studied MA Painting at the Royal College of Art. After several years making large oil paintings of gloomy woods in the company of Radio 4 and some studio mice, she had her small son, shifted to the kitchen table and realised there might be something in those doodles after all. Penny is inspired by small people, bright colours, a blank page and newly sharpened pencils. She lives in Manchester with her two children, husband and very adventurous cat.