Abiola Bello is an author who was born and raised in London, where shestill lives and works. She wrote her first novel at the age of eight - shefought monsters and dragons on a daily basis - and experienced her firsttaste of ' being published' after winning a school poetry competition at theage of 12. Seeing her words in print fuelled a passion for writing thatremains to this day. Abiola Bello first began writing the Emily Knight sagashortly afterwards (still only 12 years old!) with the intention of filling thegaping hole in children' s fiction for an inspirational, strong, black female.