Aidan Chambers is a renowned British author known for his children's and young-adult novels. He was born on 27 December 1934, near Chester-le-Street, County Durham. As an only child, Chambers struggled with school and was considered "slow" by his teachers, not learning to read fluently until the age of nine.

After completing two years of service in the Royal Navy as part of his National Service, Chambers trained as a teacher. He taught for three years at Westcliff High School in Southend on Sea, before joining an Anglican monastery in Stroud, Gloucestershire, in 1960. He later drew upon this experience in his novel Now I Know.

Chambers's early works include plays such as Johnny Salter (1966), The Car, and The Chicken Run (1968), published while he was teaching in Stroud. He left the monastery in 1967 and a year later embarked on a career as a freelance writer.

His literary achievements include winning both the British Carnegie Medal and the American Printz Award for Postcards from No Man's Land (1999). In 2002, he received the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award for his "lasting contribution to children's literature."