Linda Flavell holds a degree in modern languages and qualifications in primary and secondary teaching. Roger Flavell's Master's thesis was on the nature of idiomaticity, and his doctorate on idioms and their teaching in several European languages. He has recently retired from the University of London Institute of Education, where he was head of the department of English for Speakers of Other Languages. Their other books for Kyle Cathie are The Chronology of Words and Phrases, Dictionary of Idioms and Dictionary of Word Origins, which is being reissued at the same time as Dictionary of Proverbs.