Leila Rudge was born in England and spent her first few years making mud pies with three sisters, two brothers and Jeni from number 15. Not long after completing an Illustration Degree at Bath Spa University, she jumped on a plane to Australia in search of the sunshine.

In 2009, she illustrated her first children’s book, Duck for a Day, which was shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Award - Younger Reader’s category. No Bears, her second collaboration with Meg McKinlay also was on the shortlist in the Picture Book of the Year and Early Childhood categories of the 2012 CBCA awards.

Leila's artwork is a mixture of pencil, paint, and paper which is all hand-snipped and glued onto watercolour paper. She loves adding collage to her illustrations and often spends far too long searching through magazines for the perfect colours and patterns.