Owen and the Soldier

Lisa Thompson is a children’s novelist born in Essex, UK. Her debut novel, The Goldfish Boy, was published in the UK and North America in 2017 and went on to become a bestseller. The Goldfish Boy was nominated for numerous awards including the Carnegie Medal, The Branford Boase Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and was given a starred review by Kirkus Reviews. Thompson has gone on to write more bestselling novels, including two more featuring the Goldfish Boy characters (The Magpie Riddle and The Skeleton Puzzle) as well as The Light Jar, The Day I Was Erased and The Boy Who Fooled The World. A novella, Owen and the Soldier, was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Awards.

Australian actor Laurence Boxhall graduated from NIDA and went on to perform in Melbourne Theatre Company’s enormously successful 2019 production of Shakespeare in Love. He was also the Gen Z captain in Channel Nine’s popular Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation, with Shaun Micallef. He was also main-cast in the ABC’s hilarious Ronny Chieng: International Student. Other credits include a recurring role in Neighbours and the web series Dave and Theo. Laurence is a highly skilled voiceover artist, having narrated a number of audiobooks, including The Grunts series by Philip Ardagh for which Laurence was named one of the ten Best New Voices in 2020 by The Publishers Association in the UK.