Fly, Cherokee Fly

Chris d'Lacey was born in Malta. However, he has lived the majority of his life in Leicester. After graduating from York University with a biology degree, he went to Leicester University where he has worked for the past twenty-two years as a research scientist.

Chris never had plans to become a writer 'his teenage wish was to become a famous songwriter!'.

Chris has published books with Orchard Books, Transworld, Scholastic and Egmont. His first children's book Fly, Cherokee, Fly was highly commended for the 1999 Carnegie Medal. However, Chris claims his own favourite is The Fire Within which took him fifteen years to write and is a mixture of stories, one of which he was writing for his wife Jay as a surprise present.

Chris's latest book for Orchard Books is the remarkable sequal to The Fire Within. In Icefire David's university project on the existence of dragons takes him on an absorbing adventure all the way to the Arctic where he discovers a dragon's power is held in a tear.

Chris lives with his wife in Leicester. He is a keen Leicester City fan and has ambitions to visit the Arctic, fly in a space shuttle, own a racehorse, have a record on Top of the Pops and beat his five year old nephew on the Playstation!