Natalia writes books, studied English at Oxford University and afterwards worked as a travel writer and script developer.

Lauren O'Hara, Natalia and Lauren are two sisters from the North of England. In the daytime they edit scripts and design sets, and at night they draw and write together.

As children they loved fairytales, animal fables and the stories their Polish grandmother told on snowy nights.

Hortense and the Shadow is their first picture book.

Lauren O’Hara is an illustrator from the north of England. As a child she loved reading fairy tales, painting insects and listening to her grandmother’s stories. She studied art and illustration at Kingston University and then designed window displays and props for films.

Lauren’s career as an illustrator began when she and her sister, Natalia worked together on a picture book, Hortense and the Shadow. This was published in 2017 and followed in 2018 by The Bandit Queen. Lauren lives in a converted church in Dublin, Ireland with her partner, their cat Ida and assorted ghosts.