Growing up in Derby, Rob Childs wanted to be an England footballer or cricketer, or failing that, a sports journalist -- certainly not a teacher. Of course, he did go on to become a teacher, during which time he gained a great deal of experience coaching school teams in football, athletics, cricket and cross-country. He is now a full time writer and draws on this experience for his stories. He is best known for his successful The Big Match series, the Soccer Mad, Phantom Football and County Cup series in Yearling and for the popular Great! and Wicked series for Corgi Pups. John's illustrative background is in visual storytelling. He has worked as a storyboard artist for film and animation companies, as a comic strip artist for Marvel comics, on workshops for BBC Blast and BBC RaW programmes, in schools on visual storytelling projects and illustrated various educational publications including books on Drama and History. His work has appeared in various countries including America, Australia, France and Japan. He lives in a quiet, rural village in Suffolk.