Tabitha Suzuma was born in London in 1975 to an English mother and a Japanese father, the eldest of five children. She went to the French Lyc e and was a terrible pupil. She hated school, refused to work and sat at the back of the class, writing stories. When she was fourteen, she just stopped going to school - much to her teachers' relief and her parents' anguish. Ten years on she returned to the classroom, this time as a Year 1 teacher. At this point she wrote her first book, A Note of Madness. She went on to write two more books for teenagers: From Where I Stand and A Voice in the Distance, followed by a children's book, Without Looking Back. She now divides her time between writing and peripatetic teaching and is branching out into adult fiction. She has recently completed two novels for adults: Maya and All This I Vow. Tabitha has been nominated for 12 book awards .