Michelle Magorian was born in Hampshire. As a child she spent as much time as possible in the King's Theatre in Portsmouth and her ambition was always to go on the stage.

Michelle studied drama, including some time studying mime in Paris. From there she launched into a professional acting career and spent a few years touring all over the country - from Scotland to Devon and then Yorkshire - working in repertory companies, taking any part she could. Michelle's worst stage part was playing Orinoco the Womble in a musical.

Besides acting, Michelle had always enjoyed writing and she wrote Goodnight Mister Tom in a novel-writing class. The idea for the book came from the colours in a song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. She thought of brown as an earthy, old colour and green as a colour of youth. The character of William Beech came into her head because she thought of a beech tree with its slim trunk and it gave her the idea for a slim young boy. Details for the story came from her mother's tales about her time as a nurse in the Second World War. It took Michelle four and a half years to write Goodnight Mister Tom because she was also working in the theatre. Immediately it was published it was a huge success, and the story has now been published all over the world.

Michelle followed Good Night Mister Tom with Back Home, another story about the war - this time about adapting to coming home in 1945 after five years in the USA.

Most of Michelle's other books are also set in the 1940s, around the life of the theatre.