Bio_DiGreenI grew up between the sea and mountains on the southern tip of Africa, the youngest in a family of three girls. My mother seemed very glamorous and my father was my mapmaker, helping me plot unfamiliar territory and the texture of new experiences.

My most vivid memories are of sailing through the countryside in our cavernous 1937 Airflow De Soto, the front windscreen down, hot air blowing in… our destination the Victoria Falls and nights out in the African bush.  I’m still a traveller. In places like the Okavango Swamps, China, Egypt, South Korea, Russia, across Siberia by train, through Senegal, Tunisia, Vietnam and Zambia, I’m forever taking photographs, drawing maps, sketching, collecting scraps of paper… hoping somewhere to find the thread of a story.

When I was 10, I entered a writing competition with a story called Chocolate… from then on, I was hooked! An early career in teaching art led to an interest in the immediacy of picture books.

I live in central London with my husband and our two sons and families are nearby. I love the city with its layers of history, the constant change, the mix of so many cultures and the amazing spaces of the museums, particularly the V&A, where you can lose yourself for hours on end. Yet every now and again I need to turn back to Africa and reconnect with the wide open spaces and silence of the bush.