DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Brian Moses Author

Brian Moses (Author)
Brian Moses lives in the village of Etchingham with his wife Anne, a loopy labrador called Honey and a collection of bad-tempered chickens.

He first worked as a teacher but has now been a professional children's poet since 1988. To date he has over 200 books published including volumes of his own poetry such as Holding the Hands of Angels (Salt) and Behind the Staffroom Door (Macmillan), anthologies such as The Secret Lives of Teachers and Aliens Stole My Underpants (both Macmillan), picture books such as Beetle in the Bathroom and Trouble at the Dinosaur Cafe (both Puffin) and non-fiction titles such as Titanic: Lost & Saved (Wayland). Over 1 million copies of Brian's poetry books have now been sold by Macmillan and in 2005 he was nominated for both the CLPE Award and the Spoken Word Award.

Brian also visits schools to run writing workshops and perform his own poetry and percussion shows. To date he has visited well over 2500 schools and libraries throughout the UK. He has made several appearances at the Edinburgh Festival, been writer in residence at Castle Cornet on Guernsey, on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Light Railway and at RAF schools in Cyprus. Recently he has visited several International schools in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, France and Ireland.

He has performed his poetry at Borders on Second Avenue, New York and in September 2006 he was invited to Iceland to take part in 'Kids in the Marsh' - a festival of children's poetry and song. At the request of Prince Charles he spoke at the Prince's Summer School for Teachers in 2007 at Cambridge University. He is one of ten children's poets invited by then Poet Laureate Andrew Motion to feature on the National Poetry Archive.

Favourite book: 'Turtle Diary' by Russell Hoban.
Favourite Movie: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Favourite Music: Bob Dylan

Santy Gutierrez (Illustrator)
Santy Gutierrez was born in Spain, grew up in Vigo, and now lives in Corunna (La Coruña), both seaside cities. He doesn't remember choosing to be a cartoonist - he just doesn't remember ever having been anything else! If he had lived in the Stone Age, he'd be painting mammoths on the cave instead of going out with the rest of the tribe to hunt them.

Santy is intellectually curious and anything that tickles his neurons attracts him like a moth to the light. Everything that influences him comes out as drawings. He spends most of his time on his own planet like the Little Prince ... and in spite of that, he has been able to have a wonderful, loving family of which he is very proud, and which he considers an undeserved gift. His wife, son, and friends are his personal inspiration.

He has a fresh, evocative cartoon style and works in pencils and ink, as well as digitally with his Wacom Cintiq. Among clients, he's known for being professional, versatile, and prompt, on top of being highly skilled. In his career, Santy has won acclaim as the Best Spanish Young Editorial Cartoonist and Best Galician Caricaturist, among others. He founded the BAOBAB Studio Artists' Collective and has been chairman of the AGPI (Galician Professional Illustrators Association) for 6 years.

Santy has reached his forties enjoying his work, and he aims to keep on doing it for at least another 40 years. If he weren't an artist, he figures he'd probably be boring his pupils as a university professor.