Elinor Lyon was born in Guisborough, Yorkshire in 1921 and educated in Oxford before spending time in Switzerland and then reading English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Elinor Lyon had written her books while bringing up her four children within the community of Rugby School. Her fictional worlds centre on those themes of freedom and captivity so characteristic of children's books of the postwar period. Elinor Lyon passed away on 28th May 2008 and is survived by four children.