Mem Fox was born in Melbourne in 1946. She grew up on a mission in Zimbabwe, went to drama school in London for three years in the mid-sixties, and returned to Australia in 1970, where she undertook further studies and taught drama and literacy for twenty-eight years. In 1996, she took early retirement from her position as Associate Professor in Literacy Studies in the School of Humanities at Flinders University in order to write and consult full time. She has been a literacy consultant in Australia, the United States, Taiwan, Guam, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania, has three honorary doctorates, and is well known as the writer of many best-selling picture books for children and several nonfiction books for adults.Mem Fox lives with her family in Adelaide and pretends to write for children full time.