John Adamson, born at Poltimore, Devon, studied at the universities of Edinburgh and Geneva. He worked for several short periods in the translation department of the Banque Française du Commerce Extérieur in Paris and for eight months at the Berlitz School of Languages in London, before embarking on a career in publishing, starting as a graduate trainee at Cambridge University Press. There he became European sales representative, later publicity manager and lastly export sales director, afterwards joining the National Portrait Gallery in London as head of publications and retailing. Since the early nineties he has been an independent publisher of books in the fine and decorative arts as well as a writer and translator. He was awarded a fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries in 2019. Clive Jackson grew up in Colchester, Essex, where he attended Colchester Royal Grammar School. After working for a year in the overseas business department of a City of London insurance company, he studied for a University of London degree in French and Spanish. Deciding on a career as a modern language teacher, he lived abroad for a number of years teaching French in Canada and English in the south of France. Long resident in Cambridge, he worked in adult education as a Spanish tutor, completing his career as head of Spanish at the Perse School.