Catherine Storr was born and lived most of her life in London. She practised medicine for fifteen years, but never forgot her ambition to be a writer. She wrote her first children's books for her three daughters and many went on to become classics. Marianne Dreams was made into a film, The Paper House, in 1990. She loved writing for children because they understand that fantasy and reality are not opposites - but different ways of looking at the same thing.