Gerd de Ley is a former teacher of English, and has been a professional writer and actor since 1975. From his youth he has avidly collected original quotations and proverbs from all over the world and has had over 300 works published in Holland and belgium. He and David Potter have worked together for more than a decade, resulting in several publications in the United Kingdom, USA, India, China and Vietnam. Gerd de Ley lives in Antwerp. David Potter has an honours degree in Modern Languages from the University of Liverpool. He works closely with Gerd de Ley on translations of collections of foreign proverbs and quotations. Their previous book, Erotic Wit, was also published by Hale. Having spent most of the 1980s in Antwerp, David Potter now lives in York.