C. J. Busby lived on boats until she was sixteen, and remembers one terrifying crossing of the English Channel in gale-force winds, when her family’s barge nearly overturned. She spent most of her childhood with her nose in a book, even when walking along the road. Luckily she survived to grow up, but she still carried on reading whenever she could. After studying science at university, she lived in a South Indian fishing village and did research for her PhD. She currently lives in Devon with her three children and borrows their books whenever they let her.