Before she started writing books, Marianne was an actress. Not the incredibly famous sort, though. After graduating from Cambridge University she appeared in a few TV shows and did a bit of comedy on Radio 4. She has been in one film, in which she managed to forget both her line. Since then, Marianne has written for The Story of Tracy Beaker, introduced America's Next Top Model and been the voice of a yogurt. She lives in London, and spends her spare time eating cheese and hassling other people's dogs. Ali has always wanted to illustrate books, apart from a short time when she was seven-and-a-half and decided that she'd make a good police-dog handler. Luckily for the Alsations of Great Britain, Ali stuck (sort of) to plan A and eventually achieved her ambition.

On the way, Ali studied fashion communication (this was part of the 'sort of'), which is very useful not she's drawing Ellie May's amazing outfits. Ali lives in London with her husband and children. Her favourite things are Arctic foxes, Chinese food and wearing too much eyeliner.