David Charles, BSc. (Hons), was born in Nakuru, Kenya, into an old farming family, his grandparents being Kenya pioneers from Shropshire, and was brought up on the family farm in West Devon. He studied agriculture at Seale Hayne College, Newton Abbot, and spent his time pedigree sheep breeding and sheep shearing before settling in Exeter and developing his ideas for a humorous children's character based upon the eccentricities of all the farmers he has known. Thus Farmer John Stubblefield was born. David is currently an active member of Exeter Writers and has many more Farmer John stories up his sleeve.
Jake Tebbit has been an illustrator all his working life. He trained as a graphic designer at Kingston School of Art and worked first as a background artist at Halas & Batchelor, the British animation company, then moved on to become Senior Editorial Artist for Reed Publishing, before going freelance in 1977. He has worked with many publishers of children’s storybooks, educational textbooks, and agricultural and reference books, and his pictures have illustrated several of the BBC’s Jackanory programmes. In his spare time he teaches illustration to students at a local Sixth Form College and is well known for his ‘jolly’ cartoons, which can be viewed on his website www.jaketebbit.co.uk
