Lyn Gardner is the author of Olivia's First Term and the other Olivia books. She was born in London and now lives near Richmond Park with her partner and two daughters. A theatre critic for The Guardian, she goes to the theatre five or six nights a week, which should leave no time for writing books at all. Before she became a journalist, Lyn was a tea lady, a waitress, and sold advertising space for a magazine called Sludge. Her ambitions are to learn to tap dance and walk the high wire, but it may have to be the low wire as she is a bit scared of heights!