Gillian Philip was born in 1964 in Glasgow, Scotland. She has worked as a music store assistant, wine sales rep, radio presenter, theatre usherette, barmaid, hotel wrangler, typesetter, and political assistant. She lived for twelve years in Barbados, where to avoid spending her entire life in a beach bar she took up writing seriously. In the evenings she worked as a singer in a band in an Irish bar, playing a combination of Celtic folk rock, reggae and calypso. Her books include Crossing the Line, Bad Faith, The Opposite of Amber and the Rebel Angels series - Firebrand, Bloodstone, Wolfsbane and (coming in 2014) Icefall. She has written the Survivors series (as Erin Hunter), two Beast Quest instalments (as Adam Blade), and the Darke Academy series (as Gabriella Poole). She has toured widely in the United States as Erin Hunter, promoting the Survivors series for Harper Collins. She has been nominated and shortlisted for awards including the Carnegie Medal, the Royal Mail Scottish Children's Book Award and the David Gemmell Legend Award.She now lives in a beautiful valley near Dallas (the tiny one in Scotland), with husband Ian, twins Lucy and Jamie, and a fluctuating population of animals: currently Cluny the Labrador, Milo the Papillon, Otto the half-Papillon, psycho cats The Ghost and The Darkness, chickens Mapp, Lucia and Honey Boo Boo, and a lot of nervous fish.