Stephen (aka Steve) Cole has established himself as a highly versatile commercial writer for all age groups, his Astrosaurs series has become a UK top-ten children's bestseller and his YA thriller trilogy Thieves Like Us has been published in a number of languages. Also an expert in TV and film tie-ins, he has provided novelisations, non-fiction titles and original fiction for properties such as Shrek and Doctor Who. His most recent project for RHCB - Z. Rex - was sold pre-publication to Dreamworks Animation for film. Stephen graduated with first class honours in English Literature and Film Studies from the University of East Anglia. He then spent four years editing and writing children's magazines for the BBC, managing a team of twelve before working as an editor in various publishing roles. Stephen lives in Buckinghamshire, England, with his wife and two children. Chris Hunter is the author of Eight Lives Down, a riveting first person account of a high-threat bomb disposal tour - the world's most dangerous job in the world's most dangerous place. He joined the British Army in 1989 at the age of sixteen. He was commissioned from Sandhurst at twenty-one and later qualified as a counter terrorist bomb disposal operator. He served with a number of specialist counter terrorism units and deployed to numerous operational theatres, including the Balkans, Northern Ireland, Colombia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Seconded to COBR-A as an IED and suicide terrorism expert, he played an instrumental role during the July 2005 London bombings. In early 2007 he retired as the MOD's senior IED intelligence analyst to become a writer and Counter Improvised Explosive Device consultant. For his actions during his Iraq tour he was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal by HM Queen Elizabeth II. His citation read: 'There can be few other individuals who have so willingly played Russian roulette with their own life to safeguard the lives of others.'
