Anna Perera has been a part time chambermaid, waitress, post-mistress, anything to bring in cash when she was growing up twenty miles from London before training as a teacher. She taught English in two London secondary schools before running a unit for teenage boys excluded from mainstream school.

After completing an MA in Writing for Children, she had five books published, including Guantanamo Boy which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Children's Book Award and Branford Boase Award, longlisted for the Carnegie Medal and featured as a classic Puffin. It has been translated into 12 languages.

Her The Glass Collector was published by Puffin in the UK, Albert Whitman in the US and HarperCollins Australia in 2011.

She gives talks, writes articles and screenplays.