The Authors

Cat (aka 'Pat') Williams and David Hope met in a pub in October 2010. They hasten to add that this was entirely due to the fact that they both happened to be attending the same event at the Warwick Words Literary Festival, and not because they were lonely souls who sat around in pubs hoping to meet someone.

At a later date, and by sheer coincidence in another pub, their freewheeling (some might say incomprehensible) conversation led to the creation of one of the book's characters and so it all began.

Since publication in November 2015, Cat has been twice to Tasmania. The first trip saw her visiting Maria Island, this being one of the venues where healthy Tassies are quarantined before vaccination and release back into the wild. She also persuaded both Hobart Book Shop and Fullers, in Hobart, to take copies of the book.

In February 2017 she was delighted to meet three very important scientists who are researching the disease and developing vaccines, and also met people from the Appeal at the University of Tasmania.

Over on the mainland, Cat went to Devil Ark at Barrington Tops in New South Wales. There she was able to get up close to some of the Tassies in their 'insurance' population, including an opportunity to cuddle the Tassie imp, Molly.

Back together again, Cat and David resumed their fund-raising activities in the form of taking a stall at various markets, fetes and shows, come rain or shine.

They also took part in the Lion's Charity Sleigh Run, Christmas 2016, thereby securing a percentage of the earnings for the Appeal.

Their latest 'enterprise' is a presentation consisting of a slide show with talk, and not just ANY old talk: this one features glove puppets, a cut out kangaroo, a toy sun bear doing his best to impersonate a Tassie and a cast member going one better and dressed as one! If you'd like to see this for yourself, are somewhere near us in the UK and involved with an organisation which would like to host this presentation - which runs for about 35 minutes please get in touch.

Most recently, they have begun reading the book on air, in serialised form, at their local Community Radio - www.welcomberadio.co.uk.

As you can see, Cat and David are passionate about saving the iconic Tasmanian Devil and will continue with their fund-raising efforts for as long as they are able.

The Illustrator

Steven Maye (or Stax Maye as he’s known professionally as no one is able to spell his real name properly) is an illustrator and sculptor who dwells in the English countryside. He enjoys all things Star Wars, playing computer games and making art so messed up he has eternal disapproval from his own mother.

Occasionally he will actually draw something pretty to show the psychiatrists that he isn’t mad yet, such as those you see in the pages on this website.