The four Robinson children, 12 year old Rex, 10 and a half year old twins Guy and Elizabeth, and Martin, who is 7, are about to go on an astonishing adventure. Their sleepy life in a quiet London suburb will be exchanged in an instant for a dangerous sea-voyage, a battle with pirates, an encounter with cannibals, and a very serious mission to find an iced cake on a desert island.

Gerald William Bullett (December 30, 1893 - January 3, 1958) was a British man of letters. He was known as a novelist, essayist, short story writer, critic and poet. He wrote both supernatural fiction and some children's literature.

Bullett was born in London and educated at Jesus College, Cambridge. During World War II he worked for the BBC in London, and after the war was a radio broadcaster. Bullett also contributed to the Times Literary Supplement. Politically, Bullett described himself as a "liberal socialist" and claimed to detest "prudery, prohibition, blood sports, central heating, and literary tea parties".