Rebecca Loncraine grew up on a hill farm in the Black Mountains of Wales. After attending art school, she studied history and literature, and wrote a doctorate in English literature at Oxford University. Research for her first book, THE REAL WIZARD OF OZ: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF L. FRANK BAUM was funded by fellowship grants from the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy. Rebecca died of cancer in 2016, leaving the typescript of SKYBOUND, as a work-in-progress.