Amber Deckers

Amber Decker grew up beside the ocean in South Africa. After leaving school she developed her passion for English and Drama by studying film and became "hell bent on becoming a film director". After discovering that she was better at writing storis, however, Amber studied journalism part-time while working for an advertising agency, and later joined Marie Claire magazine as a features and fashion writer and book reviewer. Swapping the shores of the Africa for London, Amber was able to look with new eyes at the challenges and pressures facing today's youth - especially teens. In London she joined an independent film production company, with the idea of creating a television programme aimed at helping teens tackle the tricky issues with which they are faced. When the television programme was shelved, Amber decided to put her research and ideas into a novel. Ella Mental and the Good Sense Guide is the story that followed.

Fourteen-year-old Ella never leaves home without her Good Sense Guide, a book of her basic observations on how to survive life. So, when Pearl's boyfriend dumps her, Ella is the perfect person on hand to offer advice. But when Ella and her best friend, Toby start quarrelling, Ella's Good Sense Guide fails her for the first time. She'd been so busy looking out for everyone else that she hasn't realised what's been staring her in the face.

After fourteen months living in Grenada in the West Indies, Amber and her husband Craig have returned to the UK and now live on a farm in Kent with the rescue animals they brought back from the West Indies: a Doberman called Blue and Calypso, their tabby cat. Amber is currently working on a second novel for Orchard Books.