About the Author

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Alan Rickman was born in West London. Rickman studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design, the Royal College of Art, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He started in theater and later expanded to films with Die Hard. Rickman played a wide variety of characters in iconic films across many genres, including Truly, Madly, Deeply; Sense and Sensibility; Galaxy Quest; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Love Actually; and every movie in the Harry Potter series. He passed away in 2016.

Emma Thompson is an Academy Award®—and Golden Globe—winning actress who helped bring the Nurse Matilda stories by Christianna Brand to the big screen in the 2005 hit movie Nanny McPhee, in which she also starred. She lives in England and is the mother of two children.