Cornelia Funke was born 1958 in Dorsten, Westphalia. Following university, she worked for three years as a social worker in an educational project, working with children from difficult backgrounds. Additionally she studied book illustration at the Hamburg State College of Design. When she started writing children's books she illustrated her own stories. At the age of 28 she became a fulltime writer of children's books and is today one of the best known and most successful writers of Germany. She currently lives with her children in Los Angeles.