Sophie Kirtley grew up in Northern Ireland, where she spent her childhood climbing on hay bales, rolling down sand dunes and leaping the raw Atlantic waves. She now lives in Wiltshire with her husband, three children and their mini-menagerie of pets and wild things. A former teacher, Sophie has also worked in theatre, in a bookshop and in a tiny pub where folk tell fairytales by candlelight. A prize-winning poet, she has also written popular novels for young readers, The Wild Way Home, The Way to Impossible Island and The Haunting of Fortune Farm, are published by Bloomsbury. Ellan Rankin has received many accolades for her illustration work, including: being shortlisted for Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2024, winning the Sebastian Walker Prize for Picture Books 2020, winning the Carmelite Prize 2020, and winnin Picture This 2020.A huge animal lover, her first book as author-illustrator is The Secret Elephant, is a heartfelt, beautifully illustrated story of a special friendship between a baby elephant and her keeper, based on the incredible true story of Denise Weston Austin at Belfast Zoo.