The Echidna Near My Place

About the Author

Sue Whiting is a children’s and young adult author and editor who lives and works in a small coastal village south of Sydney. She has written numerous books in a variety of genres: fiction and nonfiction, picture books through to YA, including the best-selling Missing, and the CBCA 2019 Notable Book, Beware the Deep Dark Forest. Sue is passionate about storytelling and the power of story to transform lives, and has been fascinated with picture books since her early years as a primary school teacher.


Cate James moved to Australia in 2015 from Scotland where she studied Printmaking and Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art. She is now living in the Northern Beaches of Sydney with her husband and her sausage dog Sebastian. Cate is a full-time illustrator, and when she’s not drawing for children's books, she likes to find different ways to be an artist. She volunteers with ArtEx at the Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick where she also exhibits her work, and teaches art to primary-aged children and printmaking to adults in various locations around Sydney. Cate is also a printmaking technician at UNSW. She has illustrated over 25 books for publishers in the UK, US and Australia and was awarded the Penguin Random House Illustrators’ Showcase Award in 2019.