Lynn Reid Banks was born in London on July 31st, the only child of a Scottish doctor and an Irish actress. Lynn dreamt of become a drop-dead-gorgeous star of the screen or stage but when that didn't work out she became a TV journalist. While working as a journalist she working on company time and company typewriter she typed out an adult novel, The L-Shaped Room. Everyone laughed at her until her novel became a bestseller. A year later it was made into a movie as well.

She married a sculptor, Chaim Stephenson, and they had three boys. While the boys were growing up she wrote plays for the boys and friends to act out for the neighborhood.

Over the years she wrote many different things: short stories, plays, magazine articles, and a book or two but one day along came a book idea that would change her life, The Indian in The Cupboard. When asked where the idea came from, Lynn replied, "It came from a little bathroom cupboard we had. Omri (her son) thought it looked shabby and wanted to throw it away but I told him it was a magic cupboard and told him a story about it instead. Later I wrote it into a book." And, as they say, the rest is history!

—Terri DeGezelle