Chris van Wyk was a much-loved South African poet and writer who was born in Soweto in 1957 and passed away on 3 October 2014. In 2009, Van Wyk abridged Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, to create a picture book (also illustrated by Paddy Bouma) for young children. He also authored numerous books for children throughout his life and was a strong advocate of reading for young and old. Chris van Wyk was always at pains to express the humour and the sadness of life through his stories, and was determined from an early age to become a writer. His dedication to his craft and his activism continued from his early days at Sached (South African Committee for Higher Education), as the editor of the Ravan Press literary journal Staffrider, and as a full-time writer, all the while continuing to publish his works and speaking to readers around the country. Paddy Bouma was born in Cape Town and trained as a painter and printmaker at UCT, where she was awarded the McIver Scholarship, and at the Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris as a bursary student of the French government. She taught Lithography and Illustration at the University of Stellenbosch from 1971-2006 and has exhibited on numerous occasions. She has illustrated a large number of picture books that have been published internationally, including Chris van Wyk's adaptation of Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom. In 1986 she was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal.