Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin met as English Literature students at Cambridge University, where they began giving novels to each other whenever one of them seemed in need of a boost. Ella went on to study fine art and become a painter and art teacher. Susan became a novelist and journalist. In 2008 they set up a bibliotherapy service through The School of Life in London, and since then have been prescribing books either virtually or in person to clients all over the world. With four children, two husbands, various cats, dogs, mice and tortoises (some of them imaginary) between them, they created their first book, The Novel Cure, together in 2013.