Kes was born in the North of England, within sight of the Lake District. She can still do the both the forward splits and box splits, but can no longer do splits beyond 180 degrees up the wall!

Entirely seriously, though her first and most enduring love was ballet, she was more talented as a pianist (and playing the piano is more respectable than dancing) so she got sent at an early age to an incredibly prestigious, enrirely horrendous, specialist music boarding school. The experience marred her for life and stopped her from growing up properly. (She never made it above 5ft.) Hence, she writes YA fiction, because the adult world still seems hostile territory.