Judith Clarke was born and educated in Sydney and now lives in Melbourne with her husband and son. She has worked as a teacher, librarian and lecturer, and has also published novels for younger readers and short stories and poetry in magazines. Her three Al Capsella novels and her collection of stories The Boy on the Lake were first published in Australia with great success, and later in America. The first book in the Al Capsella series, The Heroic Life of Al Capsella, was included in the American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults list (1990), and was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards (1988). Al Capsella and the Watchdogs was shortlisted for the same award in 1990, and won the Variety Club Young People's Talking Book of the Year Award (1990).