Ellie Crofts began writing stories at an early age. Growing up near Liverpool she wrote her first book aged twelve about kidnapped children imprisoned in a cave in arid Spain, even though she had never been there. She moved to Devon as an adult and then Wiltshire. When her children were in bed, she wrote humorous family articles for a woman’s magazine and had a children’s story broadcast on local radio. Besides teaching, she has worked in libraries and as a housekeeper in a ‘big’ house and the glorious setting inspired her imagination. Ellie lives in Warminster with her husband and their border terrier, Dennis. The Shadow Watchers is her first novel.