Lucy Bowman grew up in a village in Cheshire, where she spent her time having adventures outdoors or reading about them in books. She completed a degree in American Studies and joined Usborne to write books on all kinds of topics, from Antarctica to space to games and puzzles. James Maclaine has written books about meerkats, general knowledge and manners, come up with countless drawing, doodling and colouring ideas, and devised puzzles and things to do for a range of activity books. His Junior Illustrated Thesaurus is the book that he wishes he'd had as a child.