Marjorie Van Heerdan was three months old the first time she "rode" a horse. Her best friend as a child was her horse, Billie Boy. She grew up on a farm on the southernmost tip of Africa, where she drew what she saw around her: animals and people and dragons and monsters and fairies. Today they appear in her more than 120 children's books. Her award-winning work has been translated into thirty-five languages and has been published in Africa, England, Europe, the United States, China, and Malaysia.