Authors and illustrators

Ruth Lauren has been a teacher and worked in lots of different offices, but she likes writing best, as well as walking in the woods, cheese, orchids, going to the movies, and reading as many books as she can. She is the author of Prisoner of Ice and Snow and its sequel Seeker of the Crown and currently lives in a Victorian house in the West Midlands in England with her partner and a lot of children and cats.

Noodle Fuel is a creative partnership that brings brilliant brain-bursting books to life. Sarah Walden is a veteran of the UK’s publishing landscape working at a strategic level in buying, sourcing and retail. Her husband, Mark, is a children’s author and ex-computer game designer. They formed Noodle Fuel in 2020 to create exciting high-octane content for children of all ages, from 1 to 100.

‘Mr Pusskins’, Sam’s first hilarious book for Orchard, won the Booktrust Early Years Award for Best Pre-School Book, was a New York Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the V&A Illustration Award and Sheffield Book Prize. She also created the brilliant Whoops-a-Daisy World series of books for Orchard, which started with ‘Doctor Miaow’s Big Emergency’. Sam has written and illustrated a number of novelty books including the Richard and Judy prize-winning ‘Calm Down, Boris’ for Templar. In 2008 Sam was Highly Commended in the Big Picture Campaign’s Best New Illustrator Awards. Sam lives in Brighton.

Sam Hay grew up in Scotland. A former journalist, she has written several children’s books including Billy Angel and Bumble the Brave Kitten. She lives with her husband, two children and several pets in a small house with a big garden.

Sable Hamilton is the pen name for Jenny Oldfield, author of a wide range of books for children and young adults – including internationally successful mini series, Beautiful Dead and Dark Angel. With Stardust Stables, she has returned to one of her favourite subjects – the glamour, the thrills and the trials of working with horses!