Berlie Doherty has loved stories for as long as she can remember. Her father used to read to her at bedtime and when he died she discovered that he had always wanted to be a writer himself. Perhaps that was why he was always very encouraging of Berlie's writing. As a child, Berlie always took a notebook around with her so that she could jot down interesting things about people, such as what somebody looked like or the snippets of conversations she overheard.

Berlie was an avid reader as a child. She loved Little Women, Heidi, the What Katy Did stories and Dickens - any story where the characters were more important than the plot.

As part of Berlie's teacher training course she had to write a short story that was later broadcast on Radio Sheffield. Radio Sheffield then commissioned Berlie to write for a schools series and after that she never stopped writing. She worked as a teacher before becoming a full-time writer in 1983.

Berlie has written more than 35 books for children and has won the prestigious Carnegie Medal twice. She loves working in collaboration with children and two of her books, How Green You Are and Spellhorn, were written with the help of children.

Berlie lives in Edale in Derbyshire and she draws a lot of her inspiration from the beautiful countryside.