SM Robert spent forty years as a children's photographer (as Steve Mussell) and many of his book ideas come from mini-stories he told his young and often timid subjects to get them in the mood for a shoot. Influenced by Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear and CS Lewis his appetite isfor larger-than-life and comic tales often written as poetry. He has five children and nine grandchildren. He and his Ukrainian wife Asya live in London, but how he met her there and romanced her in Kyiv is the subject of another story..About the illustrator, Stephen says: "When I was a child I loved Quentin Blake's illustrations.. then, aged eleven I met him outside the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington and got his autograph. He really should have remembered me fifty years later but he didn't so I went in search of artists and found Evgenia Malina who wonderfully Illustrated Jock the Croc and became a fantastic partner in the creation of the book. She added marvellously to the story's humour and introduced the colonial and regal style to the characters and buildings in Jock's world. Originally from Khazakstan she now lives in London.
