Mary Hoffman is an acclaimed children's author and critic. She is the author of the internationally bestselling picture book Amazing Grace. Her Stravaganza Sequence for Bloomsbury has its own fan forum and Stravaganza - City of Secrets, was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. The Falconer's Knot was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Award. She has three grown-up children and lives with her husband in West Oxfordshire.