About
As this is not a typical children's book, it will come as no surprise the content on the 'About' page is no different. Happy, smiley portraits of everyone involved in creating The Best-Kept Secret were requested... but as you can see, they were, for the most part, not forthcoming.
The Author
Sophie Stewart lives with her family in the Ribble Valley, home to the Lancashire witches. She is a southerner by birth but has lived in Lancashire for so long that she now eats her dinner at lunchtime and says hello to complete strangers while walking the dog.
Before she started fabricating local folklore, Sophie graduated with first-class honours in English literature. She can usually be found in her silk-dyeing studio or scouring the internet for new dollhouse miniatures and Victorian taxidermy to add to her collections.
The Illustrator
Eli John is an artist and illustrator who lives and works under an old ash tree in the Pendle Forest, witch country – Lancashire.
This melancholy landscape is a fitting setting since John’s work is primarily inspired by the supernatural, ghost stories and Gothic fiction.
Eli John has illustrated work by authors such as Stephen King, M.R. James, Arthur Machen, Sheridan Le Fanu and Algernon Blackwood and has produced images for Centipede Press, Zagava, Trapart Books, Hellebore, Gothic Keats Press and Faunus.
"A phenomenal illustrator' Guillermo del Toro
The Designer
Nathaniel Hébert is the Art Director of Helleborezine and the Design Wizard at Winter-Hébert, a design studio tucked into the wilds of rural Québec in Canada. Working in tandem with his wife, Catherine Winter, he conjures up pieces of typographic brilliance.
Past clients include Yahoo! Canada, Samsung, Facebook, Hankook, Marshalls, Bell Canada, Koodo, The Prince of Saudi Arabia, Massimo Dutti, Tiger of Sweden, Workopolis, Roots Canada and Cirque de Soleil.
The Contributors
Edited by Jane Hammet
Featuring artwork by the following pupils at Grindleton Primary School -
Teddy de Meester, Isla Vanheste, Milo Vanheste, Dexter Lord, Ruby Hipwell, Jake Scott, Carter Harrison, Bethany Courtney, Alfie Jackson-Price, Millie Embley, Elizabeth Rees, Rory Wheeler Max Pendrill and Albie Kerr.
Inspired by all the pupils at Grindleton Primary School
With special thanks to Rachel Yoxall for her brutal honesty, without which, this story would have gone up in smoke along with the toddler group's teddy bears.