Christine Pillainayagam is a writer and retail strategist, who lives in Kent with her young family and a collection of records, CD's and minidiscs (remember those?) that she refuses to be parted from; despite being aware what decade she lives in.

In her spare time, she volunteers with the charity Crisis, whose aim is to end homelessness. She is also known to some* (*her husband), as a very average wife, and a well-meaning, but often ineffectual parent to 2 brilliant boys - who inspired her to write books with more diverse characters to reflect both her own, and their backgrounds. She is 4ft 11", but if you ask - she's 5ft 2".

A mild obsession with The Beatles and the desire to write a story that reflected her own experiences growing up as a first-generation immigrant, led her to put that love of music and words into a book. Ellie Pillai Is Brown, is her debut novel and the winner of the Bradford Branford Boase Award.

She is also a singer and songwriter, and writes a blog: [...].uk - a diary of style moments and mid-life epiphanies, firmly rooted in her experience as a brown woman.