Barbara Trapido was born in South Africa, which is the setting for her 2003 novel Frankie and Stankie. She is the author of seven novels: Brother of the More Famous Jack (winner of the Whitbread Prize), Noah’s Ark, Juggling (nominated for the Whitbread Prize), Temples of Delight (shortlisted for the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award), The Travelling Hornplayer (shortlisted for the 1998 Whitbread Novel Award), Frankie and Stankie, and Sex and Stravinsky. Frankie and Stankie was longlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize, as well as shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award. Her most recent novel Sex and Stravinsky was published by Bloomsbury in 2010. She currently lives in Oxford.