Lara lives in London with her husband and three children. When she was growing up, she found reading difficult and spent a lot of time sitting on my bedroom floor, knitting and listening to audio tapes. Lara is dyslexic so writing didn’t come easy, but she always wanted to write for children.

In 2001 she applied for a post at the V&A, where she has worked ever since and specialises in mounting costumes for display for the world-famous V&A exhibitions. Her first book was a non-fiction book about costume mounting which is all about bringing clothes to life. Sometimes the outfits in the museum look so real when they are dressed onto mannequins that she almost believes they can move. This is where the idea for her second book came from called Midnight at Moonstone.