Magical Margaret Mahy

Betty Gilderdale is a scholar, educator, and an expert on New Zealand children's literature. She has worked as a lecturer, and her pioneering study, A Sea Change: 145 Years of New Zealand Junior Fiction (1982), won the PEN Award for best first book of prose. She has written numerous research papers, reviews of children's books, as well as entries in reference publications. Gilderdale's major biography, The Seven Lives of Lady Barker, was published in 1996. Betty is also the author of the now classic The Little Yellow Digger, which has remained in print for over twenty years. The Betty Gilderdale Award has been named in her honour, and in 2014 she was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to children's literature.

Illustrator Alan Gilderdale (1924-1913) was born in England and attended Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London. A painter, printmaker, art lecturer and full-time illustrator, his work has been exhibited in London, Toronto and Auckland. Married to writer and children's literature expert Betty Gilderdale, Alan illustrated a number of New Zealand children's books, most notably The Little Yellow Digger, for which he was awarded the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-Loved Book.