The daughter of South American parents, Monica Meira Vaughan grew up in Spain before moving to London at the age of five where she learnt English by watching Sesame Street and reading every Roald Dahl book she could get her hands on. On leaving school, and after a brief stint in public relations, Monica decided to train as a primary school teacher. She spent over ten years working in special needs, mostly with children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, before becoming a full time writer.

Monica loves writing after midnight, building cardboard cities and playing Lego with her daughter. She lives in London, UK.

I’ve always loved computing, as you probably know if you’ve read my books!

The worst job I ever had was working in a sandwich factory when I was at university, putting pickles on bread. It put me off pickles for life!

I have had two cats - one called Elvis (playing cards in this picture - he was very smart!), and the cat I have now, called Toto (named after the dog in Wizard of Oz, of course).

I love country music! When we were teenagers, my best friend & I saved up for a flight to Nashville. She liked it so much, she moved there & now I have a place to stay whenever I want :)