Princes Don't Practise

Kathryn Simmonds is an award-winning poet and author of picture books, including Princes Don't Practise, Trouble at the Bug Hotel and Twenty Bears. She has written all sorts of things - stories for radio, questions for quiz machines, books of poems, sketch comedy, a novel . . . and now picture books! Kathryn's husband is also a writer and they have too many books in their house. Kathryn's lives with her family in Norfolk, where she loves the beach but is afraid of the seagulls.

Becky Colvin studied illustration at The University of West England in Bristol and went on to win the prestigious Macmillan Prize for Illustration in 2023. Princes Don't Practise is the second work Becky has illustrated after her debut author-illustrated picture book, The Great Green Island, which was shortlisted for The Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2026.

Becky loves telling stories, capturing both the quiet and the not-so-quiet moments in life - her main personality trait is drawing, so it won't surprise you to know that that's what she spends most of her time doing. She also knows a freaky amount about clouds and is wildly mediocre at juggling. Becky lives in Bristol.