Julia Blackburn

Julia Blackburn is the author of five books of non-fiction, Charles Waterton, The Emperor's Last Island, Daisy Bates in the Desert, Old Man Goya and With Billie, and two novels, The Book of Colour and The Leper's Companions, both of which were shortlisted for the Orange Prize. She is the author of seventeen short stories specially commisioned by BBC Radio, a selection of which were published in My Animals and Other Family, and four radio plays, including The Spellbound Horses, which was broadcast in 2011. She is married to the artist Herman Makkink and they live in Suffolk and Italy.