Born on the 9th of August, 1941, in Mussoorie, India, to an English mother and an Indian father, which made her feel connected to both cultures from birth, describing herself as ‘half and half’. 

Gavin moved to England properly when she was 11 but she had visited before when she was 6, finding work in the BBC before diving into the world of writing properly. Her first book, The Magic Orange Tree and Other Stories was published in 1979 but it was the birth of her first child that made her realise that children’s material was sorely lacking any multi-racial children, and thus her works began to fill in that gap. She is a supporter of a few charities and events, such as the Shakespeare Schools Festival and the Stroud Book Festival. 

Her works consist of her Surya Trilogy (The Wheel of Surya in 1992, The Eye of the Horse in 1994, and The Track of the Wind in 1997), which depicts how the British Empire affected the Indian world through the eyes of two generations of a family; Coram Boy, which sees a tale of the foundling hospital and the consequences of one man’s cruel and shrewd actions; and Grandpa Chatterji, which aims itself at a younger audience.