Geraldine McCaughrean was so shy at infant school that she didn't even dare to ask the teacher's name. She daydreamed her way through her school days and then went to college to train to be a teacher.

Geraldine didn't like teaching very much and wasn't very good at being a secretary or sub-editor because she was so vague. Luckily, she was given a job on a children's story magazine where she was asked to write some of the stories. This was something she could do well!

Geraldine now writes full-time. She loves making things up about people and places. Her motto is: Don't write about what you already know; write about what you'd like to know. She researches her stories thoroughly, mostly in the public library.

Geraldine has won the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Award and the Guardian Children's Fiction Award.