Can't You Sleep, Little Bear?

I was read to a lot as a child by people who knew how to read stories. These stories came alive for me, and the love of story has stayed with me ever since.
I live where I lived as a child, and nearly all my stories come from things that have happened to me here, at the foot of the Mountain of Mourne. I work in an old stone barn beside my home, and dream my stories in the garden and on long walks on the beach in front of my house. I never write anywhere else. This is where I belong.

When she was three, Barabra began drawing plants and animals, and when she was eleven years old, her family moved to the country, enabling her to spend even more time sketching the flora and fauna around her. After leaving school she studied pattern cutting at the London College of Fashion. She was offered a job in the Marks and Spencer design department, but turned it down in favour of a job on Vogue knitting books, producing step-by-step illustrations of knitting, crocheting and dressmaking. It was with Walker Books, however, that Barbara was able to do illustration work in her favourite field - natural history - and has gone on to illustrate many award-winning books.