Claire Gray-Simon

Claire Gray-Simon lives in Edinburgh with her husband and their two young children, Ben and Thomas, and is a French teacher for both adults and children. She was born in the town of Chaumont, in the east of France, but grew up in Paris where she become a postgraduate of French Literature at the University of Paris 8. 

Having moved around frequently — from Paris to London, London to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to New York and back again — Claire began to think about creating stories for children with two bilingual characters. During her time in New York, she met many bilingual families who spoke both English and French at home and was amazed at how quickly the children could switch from one language to another, often mid-sentence. Claire’s children are her main source of inspiration, and it was watching her son (aged five at the time) interact with his friends that lead her to create Justine and Sebastien.
The imaginative works of Lewis Carroll, Beatrix Potter and H. A. Rey’s Curious George Adventures are also a huge inspiration to Claire, as well as Les contes de Perrault and Les Fables de Jean de la Fontaine in classic French literature. Claire’s main attraction to these stories is the way that children can become so attached to the characters that they establish a relationship with them — which is something she hopes to achieve with Justine and Sebastien.