Gaby Halberstam was born and raised in Africa until her family moved to England when she was fifteen. After earning a degree in English at Oxford University, she went on to qualify as a lawyer. She knew from the first day working as a lawyer that that she really wanted to become a full-time author. Her first novel, Blue Sky Freedom, received critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Children's Book of the Year. Her second book, The Red Dress, was published in 2009. Both stories are based in South Africa, with the setting and plot drawn from her childhood memories and from what she learned about the apartheid system.