Rachel Swirles was born in Nottingham and as a child spent most of her time drawing, reading or daydreaming. When Rachel was 18 she went to University to study Theology, and then became a librarian in a University Library, but wasn’t very good at it because she didn’t like telling the students to be quiet or charging them fines! She did read an awful lot of books though, and consequently knows a lot of stuff making her quite useful in Quiz teams. When her children were small she started drawing again and eventually went back to University to study Illustration, graduating in 2006 with a First class Honours degree. In 2006, her work was showcased at the AOI Best of British Contemporary Illustration, and also in the New Talent section in the Images 30 Annual. She did some work designing Greetings cards but now works as a children’s book illustrator, which is what she always dreamed of when she was a little girl. Rachel works in pen or acrylic.
In Rachel’s spare time she likes rummaging around antiques fairs and secondhand bookshops, watching films, growing flowers in her garden, and baking cakes and then eating them. And she still spends a lot of time drawing, reading and daydreaming! Rachel lives with her husband and two daughters in Lincolnshire.