Vyvyen Brendon read History at St Anne's College, Oxford. After a career in teaching she retired as Head of History at St Mary's School, Cambridge, to take up full-time research and writing. With the successful publications of Children of the Raj and Prep School Children, Vyvyen has become an acknowledged expert on the subject of youngsters past and present. Children at Sea is her third book. She keeps in touch with the rising generation through her work as chair of the trustees of a nursery school and through her five grandchildren.