About the Authors

Robert Nowell first arrived in Oman at the age of 6, in 1980, where his father was a pilot for Sultan Qaboos. Some of his education took place at the Royal Flight School but his living education was at the hands of his father. By the age of nine, he was a crack shot with a rifle, at ten, he successfully navigated his father across part of the Wahiba Sands in a fierce sandstorm using a handheld compass. By the age of 12, he could drive a Landrover and, more importantly, change a tyre. At 13, he left to be educated at Oakham School in Rutland. His holidays were spent in the Middle East where he travelled extensively all over Oman and the UAE with his father both by Landrover and helicopter. After Oakham, Robert read Law in London but the lure of the Middle East beckoned and he returned to become an accomplished and determined photographer who undertakes photographic assignments all around the Gulf and Europe. He is currently proceeding with his Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society and for the past two years has been heavily involved with the promotion of the World Wide Fund for Nature. He is also diving towards an instructor rating and intends to take his Private Pilot's Licence next summer in Florida when he and his father will be photographing A Day Above Florida.

Simone Nowell arrived in the Middle East at the tender age of 2. On being introduced to the Commander of the Royal Flight of Oman, she declared "Hello, I'm me!". Since that day, Simone has always been her own person. Along with her other brothers and sister, she was educated first at the Royal Flight School and later at Oakham. During the weekends and holidays, she was party to the travels of an adventurous father; throwing snowballs on top of 10,000ft Jebel Akhdar during a Christmas holiday; rescuing baby turtles from fishing nets on the beaches of Sur; swimming with the dolphins off Muscat; climbing sand dunes in the Empty Quarter, culminating in flying her father's plane, a Commander 114B, while he taking aerial photographs. Her father, a very experienced pilot and instructor, detected that she had "a lovely pair of hands on the controls" and sent her off to Fujairah Flying school where she went solo. Her instructor, Khalid Masood Butt, was equally impressed and entered her for the 'spot landing' competition organised by the Dubai Flying Association. With just 14 hours flying time, she competed against 50 men and 3 women PPL holders and won the competition at Ras Al Khaimah International Airport. Ron Hinchey, Chairman of DFA, presented her with the Shell Trophy.

Simone was fortunate to be invited to attend the private Latifa School for Girls and graduate with Maths, Physics and Biology A levels. Against her father's wishes, who wanted her to be either a Royal Air Force fighter pilot or a British Airways Boeing 747 jumbo pilot, she, as always, being her own person, chose instead to go for an engineering degree at UCL. During her industry familiarisation year, having gone solo on a Caterpillar backhoe loader, she decided to return to the Middle East to take up journalism. Amongst other achievements, she wrote and ran the "Sharjah WhatWhere" magazine for the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority. As well as running the marketing department at Zodiac Publishing, she now writes for several international magazines, manages three websites and continues to research for the Now & Then series.