Berlie Doherty is the author of numerous books for children and young adults. She has won the prestigious Carnegie Medal twice -- for Granny Was a Buffer Girl and for Dear Nobody -- and in 1994 Willa and Old Miss Annie was highly commended for the Carnegie Medal. Ms. Doherty began writing tales even before she went to school and at age eight was earning boxes of chocolates and boxes of paints from the local newspapers for her stories and poems. She lives in England.