Free Lance and the Dragon's Hoard

About Paul Stewart, Chris Riddell

Paul Stewart was born in London. He is a graduate of Lancaster University and of the University of East Anglia's creative writing course. For several years he taught English as a foreign language in Sri Lanka. Returning to England, he continued teaching before becoming a full-time writer.

He is a highly regarded author of books for young readers - everything from picture books to football stories, fantasy and horror. His first book was published in 1988 and he has since worked for a number of publishers and had over fifty titles published.

Together with Chris Riddell, he is co-creator of the Far-Flung Adventures series, which includes Fergus Crane, Gold Smarties Prize Winner, Corby Flood and Hugo Pepper, both Silver Nestle Prize Winners and the Muddle Earth series.

They are of course also co-creators of the bestselling Edge Chronicles series, which has sold over two million books and is now available in over thirty languages.

Paul lives in Brighton with his wife and children.

Chris Riddell is an accomplished graphic artist whose distinctive line drawings, with their clever caricature, fascinating detail and often enchanting fantasy elements are familiar to both children and adults.

He studied illustration at Brighton Polytechnic and has illustrated many acclaimed books for children, including the Ottoline series, Pirate Diary by Richard Platt, and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver, which both won the Kate Greenaway Medal.  Chris has also won the Costa Children’s Book Award 2013 for Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse.

In addition to his childrens book work, Chris is a renowned political cartoonist, whose work appears regularly in UK newspapers the Observer and the Guardian, as well as The Literary Review and The New Statesman.

Chris lives in Brighton with his wife and children.
www.chrisriddell.co.uk