Fiona Macdonald is a highly experienced children's author specialising in history. She has written or contributed to a number of books, including a book on the art of keeping clean, which won the Times Educational Supplement's Senior Information Book award of the year. Philip Steele is a historian specialising in writing books for the children's market. His previous books include World of Pirates, Find Out About the Vikings, and is the co-author of Swords and Samurai, Sungods and Sacrifice and Gods and Gladiators.