Vivian French lives in both Bristol and Edinburgh. She is a visiting lecturer at the University of the West of England, and has been a writer in residence in schools reaching from the Orkney Islands to Oklahoma. She was also a regular reviewer for The Guardian for five years.

Vivian worked in children's theatre for ten years as both an actor and writer, and has had plays performed in venues such as the Young Vic Studio in London and the Wyvern Theatre in Swindon. She is now a children's author and story teller; she has been telling stories for more than twenty years in schools, community centres, theatres - wherever there are people to listen.