Helen Constantine taught languages in schools until 2000, when she became a full-time translator. She has published three volumes of translated stories, Paris Tales, French Tales, and Paris Metro Tales and is currently editing a series of 'City Tales' for Oxford University Press. She has translated Mademoiselle de Maupin by Théophile Gautier and Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos for Penguin and The Wild Ass's Skin by Balzac for OUP. She is married to the writer David Constantine. ; Lotte Shankland is a Copenhagener by birth who has lived many years in England. She moves easily between both cultures and languages but this is her first book to capitalize on the connection. Trained as an artist, she has taught widely in schools and the community in County Durham, where she has also founded a family firm to preserve the northern tradition of banner painting.