Antoine de Saint-Exupery, born in Lyon 29 June 1900, was a French writer and aviator. In 1921 he began his military service and trained as a pilot, and at the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the French Air Force flying reconnaissance missions. Later, he joined the Free French Forces but while flying a mission in the Rhone valley on 31 July 1944 he disappeared and was never seen again. It was assumed that he was shot down over the Mediterranean. Chris Riddell, the 2015-2017 UK Children's Laureate, is an accomplished artist and the political cartoonist for the Observer. His books have won a number of major prizes, including the 2001, 2004 and 2016 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medals. Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse won the Costa Children's Book Award 2013. His work also includes the bestselling Ottoline books, The Emperor of Absurdia, and, with Paul Stewart, the Muddle Earth books, the Scavenger series and the Blobheads series.