Mary-Anne O'Connor grew up in Wahroonga in the Bushland Shire of Hornsby-Kuringai, northern Sydney. The youngest of six children, her childhood was spent exploring the local bush and playing music with her siblings and close neighbours. An avid reader, she devoured her mother Dorn's extensive library and was often found trying to finish a chapter by torchlight late at night. She also began to fill every blank piece of paper in the house with stories and drawings of her own and dreamt of becoming a writer one day. When she was twelve her father Kevin Best left his established career in the stock-market to become an artist. The perseverance and ultimate triumph she witnessed during those years left her inspired to follow in his footsteps and pursue her own creative aspirations. A successful marketing career followed, along with the completion of education/arts degree and during this time she also co-wrote two books with her father, A Brush with Light and Secrets of the Brush. Work then began on her first major novel, Gallipoli Street. Mary-Anne still lives in the Bushland Shire with her husband Anthony, their two sons, Jimmy and Jack and their very spoilt dog, Saxon.
Rebecca Macauley is a talented and award-winning narrator. She has appeared in a variety of television programs, including the internationally popular series Neighbours and the Australian drama Blue Heelers. Her work includes the US feature film Darkness Falls and the children's television series Wicked Science. Rebecca has previously narrated Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta and Ursula Dubosarsky's Abyssinia.