Julia Donaldson was born in 1948. She grew up in London and studied Drama and French at Bristol University.

 She worked for a few years in publishing and as a teacher, while also writing and performing songs and street theatre with her husband Malcolm, and writing and directing two musicals for children.

 In 1993, one of her songs was made into a book, A Squash and a Squeeze. Since then she has written over a hundred books and plays for children and teenagers, including the award-winning rhyming stories which are among the UK’s best-selling picture books.
She is also the author of the popular phonic Songbirds series, part of Oxford Reading Tree.