Encyclopedia of World History

Sam Taplin grew up in a beautiful valley in Yorkshire, where he dreamed of being a writer, and after three years reading other people's books at university he started writing his own for Usborne. He's been doing it ever since. When he's not writing about lonely rabbits or inquisitive bears, he likes doing card tricks, writing songs and playing long games of chess by the fire.

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Jane studied English at Exeter and Art History at York. She has worked on various Usborne dictionaries, encyclopaedias and learning books, and her edition of the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary was awarded a prize for a significant contribution to children's literacy. She has two sons and three stepsons who are now scattered across the globe. She gets a huge thrill from seeing her books on sale when she travels to the USA and Australia.

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Fiona Chandler (1965 - 2008) was a Senior Editor and writer at Usborne Publishing who studied French and German at Cambridge University and worked as a teacher before joining the company in 1995. She worked on a wide range of titles including history encyclopedias, books for learning languages, Young Reading and parenting guides.

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