Gary was born under a bush and brought up by a family of weasels. He was hopeless in school except for art, English and history, in which he weaselly came top of the class. After working as a teacher for a while, he became an illustrator, and drew the pictures for many of the Redwall books. He lives with his wife in a farmhouse in the French countryside, working in a huge attic, surrounded by scraps of paper and hundreds of toy soldiers. Allan was born under the kitchen floor of a derelict house in south-east London. At the age of nine, he inherited a typewriter and, for want of anything better to do, began to write stories. He had his first book published at the age of one hundred and three; lots more followed. He has a German wife, an English cat and a collection of old Beano annuals.