The Independent / Scholastic Story of the Year: One year on: a winner's tale: The Judges

Terry Jones, writer and film director, was one of the Monty Python team. He started writing children's stories to amuse his five-year-old daughter and has since written several bestselling children's books, including Erik the Viking and Fantastic Stories. His daughter and son are now grown up and he lives in south London. He is currently completing a book and BBC documentary on the Crusades, and a new collection of tales, Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book, will be published in the autumn.

Anne Fine is one of the best known children's writers. Her books, which often deal with the difficulties of family life, include Madame Doubtfire, on which the latest Robin Williams film is based. Stories including Bill's New Frock, Goggle- eyes and Flour Babies have won her the Smarties Prize, the Whitbread Children's Book award and two Carnegie medals. She has two grown up daughters and lives in Teesdale, Durham.

Blake Morrison is the former literary editor of the Independent on Sunday. Since the publication last year of his award-winning memoir, And When Did You Last See Your Father?, he is now writing full-time. He lives in London and has two sons, aged 12 and 4, and a daughter, aged 9.

David Fickling, chair of the judging panel, is editorial director of Scholastic Children's Books, which will publish the winning stories. His sons are aged 13 and 10 and his daughter is 8. He lives in Oxfordshire.

Julia Eccleshare is children's literature correspondent of the Bookseller. From 1982 to 1992 she was the selector for Children's Books of the Year, an annual review of children's books. She lives in London with her four children, aged 13, 11, 8 and 3.

Enid Stephenson is vice-chair of the Federation of Children's Book Groups. She will be representing the views on the shortlist of schoolchildren from around the country. She owns a bookshop in Norwich, where she lives with her husband and 17-year-old son.

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