Karen McCombie was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, where the view from her bedroom was of the steely North Sea, dotted with oil rigs. But memories of childhood holidays spent in the heather-covered Highlands are what's lodged in her DNA and these helped inform Little Bird. Karen now lives in London with her very Scottish husband Tom, English daughter Milly (who's been taught to say "loch" in the correct way) and a Scottish Wildcat (near enough).