The Good Bear

About Sarah Lean

Sarah Lean grew up in Somerset with a fascination for animals after a stray cat walked in the back door of the family home. She now lives in beautiful Dorset and has a husband a son and two naughty terriers. She has worked as a page-planner for a newspaper a gardener and a primary school teacher amongst many other things. After studying at university in her 40s she gained a First Class English Degree and a Masters in Creative & Critical Writing. Sarah is the author of several children's novels including the bestseller A Dog Called Homeless winner of the Schneider Family Book Award in the US the Hazelgrove Book Award as well as being shortlisted for Sheffield Children's Book Award and longlisted for Brandford Boase Award. Her motto is welcome anything unexpected that comes your way. From an early age Fiona knew that she wanted to earn her living drawing. Since graduating from Glasgow School of Art she has been working freelance in London on animated films commercials animation artwork for West End shows and illustration work.  She explores a variety of subject matter through self-initiated and commercial work deriving inspiration from new places brilliant people bold patterns structures and subtle details in everyday life.  All the projects she works on have a paper based handmade origin. She likes to work with a combination of pencil paint charcoal children's blow pens cutting stencils and experimenting with print techniques whilst dreaming up new characters and stories.