Simona Ciraolo is a Sardinian born author and illustrator whose witty and endearing tales recently won her the Sebastian Walker Award. Ciraolo studied animation at the National Film School in Turin, Italy, before moving to the UK where she undertook an MA in Children's Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art. She has also worked as a freelance 2D animator for children's TV shows and illustrated five picture books for an independent Italian publisher.