Aleksei Tolstoy (1883-1945) was born and lived in Russia. During his four-decade literary career, he witnessed milestone historic events, both in his home country of Russia and abroad. He was a master storyteller, and wrote several children's tales as well as poems, plays and stories for adults. Niamh Sharkey, an award-winning Irish illustrator, graduated from the College of Marketing and Design, Ireland, in 1994 with First Class Honours. She works in oils on a gessoed textured background to create the richness in colour that has already established her as a world class illustrator. Niamh has illustrated a number of best-selling titles at Barefoot Books: Tales from Old Ireland + CD (1-905236-03-4), The Gigantic Turnip + CD (1-902283-29-5) and Tales of Wisdom and Wonder (1-84148-191-2).