When World War Two broke out, he enlisted in the RAF and became a fighter pilot of the 80 squadron. You can read more about this time of his life in the books, Boy and Going Solo. It was after a serious crash over the Libyan desert, where he suffered terrible injuries, that he started writing.

After the war, Roald Dahl moved to Washington DC and began writing short stories for adults. His first children's book was published in 1944, The Gremlins. His second children's book came in 1961 - James and the Giant Peach - and it is still a bestseller today. After this, he wrote a string of bestsellers, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was voted the best children's book of all time.

Roald Dahl died in November 1990 aged 75. During his life, Roald Dahl came to be known as one of the greatest storytellers ever; he was a constant winner of 'Author of the Year' awards and his books are translated into 37 different languages.

The Facts

• Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, South Wales on September 13th 1916.

• His parents were Norwegian, and were called Harald and Sofie.

• He went to Repton School, in Derbyshire, and left school in 1933.

• His first job was in Africa, with the Shell Oil Company.

• In the Second World War he fought as a fighter pilot, and was badly injured when his plane crashed.

• After the war he worked in America, and soon started writing stories.

• His very first children's book, written in 1943 was called The Gremlins. Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the President of the USA liked it so much he was invited to the White House and became friends with the President, Franklin D Roosevelt.

• From 1945 until his death, he lived at Gipsy House, in Buckinghamshire, where he wrote his famous children's books.

• He died in hospital in Oxford, on November 23rd, 1990.

Jacqueline has been on countless shortlists and has won many awards, including the Smarties Prize, and the Children's Book Award. The Illustrated Mum won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the 1999 Children's Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. It was also short-listed for the 1999 Whitbread Children's Book Award. The Story of Tracy Beaker won the 2002 Blue Peter People's Choice Award.

Millions of copies of her books have been sold in the UK alone. In the poll conducted by the BBC, The Big Read, four books by Jacqueline Wilson were in the Top 100: Double Act, Girls in Love, Vicky Angel and The Story of Tracy Beaker. According to a recent Mori poll Jacqueline was voted English children's favourite children's author.

Jacqueline Wilson has sold millions of books, her total stands at over 20 million in the UK alone. In June 2002 Jacqueline was given an OBE for services to literacy in schools.

The Facts

• Born in Bath in 1945

• Always wanted to be a writer from the age of 9 when she wrote her first ‘novel’.

• Won many awards including The Smarties Prize, The Children’s Book awards, The Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, The 1999 Children’s Book of the Year at The British Book Awards.

• Jacqueline Wilson has 4 books in the Top 100 Books in a poll conducted by the BBC, The Big Read.

• Voted English Children’s favourite Children’s Author according to recent Mori poll.

• Jacqueline Wilson was given an OBE in June 2002 for services to literacy in schools.

Philip read English at Oxford University, and for a long time was a teacher. His first book Count Karlstein was in fact a play, created for the pupils at his school to act in. Philip has also written television scripts, which he enjoys as it is less solitary than working on novels.

The first part of his ground-breaking His Dark Materials trilogy was published in 1995. Part I, Northern Lights won the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction, and went on to win the coveted Carnegie Medal the following year. The next book, The Subtle Knife was short-listed for the Carnegie Medal. The Amber Spyglass was published in 2001 and was the first children's book ever to win the overall Whitbread Book Prize. This led to a dramatic rise in sales, and increase in the amount of media interest and coverage of Philip. Sir Tom Stoppard is working on a major film of the trilogy, whilst it will form part of the Royal National Theatre's productions this autumn.

Philip Pullman lives with his wife Jude near Oxford. He used to write in a shed at the bottom of the garden, but when he moved recently he gave the shed to fellow writer Ted Dewan. He now spends his time surrounded by books in a special writing room. He writes on very specific paper, and makes prolific use of the smallest yellow post-it notes on which he plans out the plot for each page before he starts writing. He also sets himself a target of words to write each day.

In autumn 2002 Philip was awarded the Eleanor Farjeon prize in recognition for his enormous contribution to the world of children's books, and he announced a partial withdrawal from public life in order to write. Philip was made a CBE in the New Year Honours List 2004.
David Fickling Books published Lyra's Oxford in 2003.

In 2005, Philip Pullman won the 2005 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. This is an immense achievement, and is one of the greatest honours that a children's author can receive. The award, set up by the Swedish government in 2002, is the world's largest children's and young people's literary award. It is awarded to authors, illustrators, narrators and promoters of reading whose work reflects the spirit of Astrid Lindgren.

The Facts

• Philip Pullman grew up all over the world, as his dad and then his step-dad were in The Royal Air Force.

• Philip Pullman can't live without Post-it notes --- he writes pieces of scenes on each, then puts them all on a big sheet of paper, moving them around to get the best story!

• Philip Pullman's first novel was for adults --- he began writing for children when he became a school teacher.

• Philip Pullman wrote a play called SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE LIMEHOUSE HORROR --- which features a six foot long stuffed rat!

• Philip Pullman's books have won many awards including: the ALA Best Book for Young Adults award, Publisher's Weekly Book of the Year and the Horn Book Fanfare Award.

He had his first novel, The Carpet People, published when he was only 23 and continued to write in his spare time whilst working on local newspapers. In his thirties he began to worry about his future and leaving journalism behind, he spent the next 8 years as a press officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board. When his fourth book The Colour of Magic became successful in Corgi paperback, he realised that writing was his future, and in 1987 he gave up his job and began writing full time.

Where Terry goes, his word processor goes too - which is just as well as he undertakes huge and regular signing tours, with readers turning up in their hundreds to each event. He believes that everyone is capable of writing. Perhaps this is why everyone is capable of reading his works... He is known to interest even the most apathetic readers, and confidently ignores the marketing gulf fixed between children and adults.

Terry and his wife live in Wiltshire. Terry's interests include geology, astronomy, growing carnivorous plants, keeping tortoises and trying to make computers do things they were never intended to do.

The Facts

• A man named Marco Soto beat out all other bidders at the charity auction at Aggiecon 31 in Texas, winning the chance to be written in as a character in Thief of Time. His character got to kill three bad guys with an exploding begging-bowl.

• Pratchett attended High Wycombe Technical High School, where his story ''The Hades Business'' appeared in the school magazine when he was 13, and commercially in Science Fantasy just two years later.

• Stephen Briggs was the first person to adapt a Discworld novel for the stage. He also came up with the idea of mapping Discworld geography and gathered all the Ankh Morpork references from the books and produced a rough map. Since then, maps of Discworld as a whole, Lancre and Death Domain have been created. Terry and Stephen contribute a thin booklet to each map providing a little insight into the subject matter.

• There exists a Discworld Companion, with references to everyone and everywhere in the Discworld to date.

• Where Terry goes, his word processor goes too.

• Terry has many other interests, which include Geology and Astronomy.