Jenny Nimmo had a lonely childhood. She was an only child and her father died when she was five so there was just her and her mother at home. She grew up on her uncle's free-range chicken farm surrounded by chickens.

Jenny was sent away to boarding school when she was only six. She hated it, but was happier after the age of 11, when she went to a secondary school where she was encouraged to become an actress. Her guardian's wife was the famous dancer, Dame Ninette de Valois, so she was taken to the ballet a lot too.

At school, Jenny was quiet but also quite naughty. She loved to make people laugh, and was always sending up the teachers by imitating their mannerisms. Jenny was the long jump champion of her school for three years running!

Jenny has always loved reading and writing. She read all the books in the junior school library and had to beg permission to join the senior school library when she was only nine. The librarian wore a key on a string around her neck and had to unlock the door especially for Jenny! Her own stories were often violent and, if she could, there was always a dead body in them! Jenny used to entertain her school friends by telling creepy stories after lights out in the dormitory.

Jenny now lives in an old water mill in a remote part of Wales with her husband, who is an artist, and her three children. She can only start her writing when she has fed all the chickens, rabbits and cats! She writes in a soft, 3B pencil and rewrites and edits as she goes along. When she's sure she has made all the changes, she lets her husband read the story and then types it up for her publisher on an old typewriter.