Liz Elwes lives in north London with her husband and four children and two long-suffering goldfish. She has lived in 26 houses all together because when she was young her father was in the army and her family moved all the time. She had been to 10 schools by the time she was 13 years old, so she’s had plenty of practice at being the new girl. This meant a lot of letter writing. She then went to a convent boarding school in Cambridge which was a relief after all that moving around, though she’s not sure if the nuns were as happy as she was.

She has lived in London ever since leaving university. She worked at Sotheby’s and the Royal Academy of Art. She then trained to be a primary teacher and now she trains teachers herself and visits loads and loads of schools which she loves. Her family is sure she is going to use their lives in her books and she says no she won’t but it’s a big fat lie. She works in a very messy corner of a big room with her boy’s computer games, writing on a very old, dodgy computer with a big pot of tea at her side. Her husband says ‘Why don’t you write in the quiet beautiful room at the top of the house on your new lap top.’ and she always says she will but when he’s gone she creeps back downstairs again. She doesn’t know why she does this.

She is fine about going shopping with her daughter but when her sons make her wait outside for ages and pretend she’s not with them, she finds this quite boring. The most annoying thing you can do is to ask her ‘What’s for supper?’ and then groan when she tells you.

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