Shirin Adl was born Shirin Saramad in Harlow in 1975. A little while later she left England for Iran and decided to stay there as it seemed like a good place for growing up. That is to say her grandparents' garden was a great place for ant spotting and what more could she ask for really? Shirin's childhood was quite typical. She split her time between insect watching, drawing, and desperately trying to separate the goings on in her head into two simple sections; reality and fiction, praying for one of Saddam's bombs to hit her school (at night time of course when there was nobody in there) and wondering if God was really always watching her, even when she was in the bathroom.

In 1994 Shirin went back to England and really loved it as they not only had decent ants over there, but also had lots of dogs and woodpigeons too. She studied illustration at Loughborough University and after three years, just long enough for her to learn to spell the name of the place, she came out with a first class BA honours. Then at the New Designers exhibition in London she won the Hallmark M&S division Talented Designer Award. Shirin was very pleased with herself, being able to spell Loughborough had always been a great ambition of hers.

Shirin currently lives in Oxford with her lovely husband Mr Adl who kindly offered to share his surname with her as her own was too long. She has given up on sorting the reality and fiction departments in her head and instead has decided to illustrate everything that is in there (I know, I didn't think it was such a good idea either).

If you are interested in what goes on in Shirin's head or you would like her to have a go at what goes on in yours, you can contact her on shirin[at]shirinadl.co.uk or visit her blog, Shirin in Engelestan