When the annual school science fair comes round, Mr Cartright's class don't get to work on the Soap Factory, the Maggot Farm or the Exploding Custard Tins. To their intense disgust they get the Flour Babies - sweet little six-pound bags of flour that must be cared for at all times.

Anne Fine was born and educated in the Midlands. She studied Politics and History at University, then taught in a girls' secondary school for a year. She then moved to Oxford with her husband and spent two years working as an Information Officer for Oxfam, "it changed my attitudes to money, to 'things', and to what is truly important in life, for ever."

In 1971 Anne's first daughter was born. Unable to get to the library in a snowstorm to change her library books, in desperation she sat down and started to write a novel. After living in California, Arizona, Michigan and Canada she returned to Edinburgh in 1981. A few years later she moved to County Durham. She has written numerous highly acclaimed and prize-winning books for children and adults.