Lehla Eldridge

Lehla Eldridge was born in England and has had an eclectic life working as an actress, illustrator, and a restaurant owner, amongst other things. However she has always illustrated and written since being very young. Having trained as an actress in London at The Guildhall School, she was awarded a scholarship in 1995 from Twentieth Century Fox to work with various theatre companies around South Africa, and has taken a theatre show to the International Theatre Festival in India. She went on to live in South Africa for 15 years and ran The Succulent Cafe with her husband. She is the author and illustrator of The South African Illustrated Cookbook. She also illustrated a children’s book called Excuse Me, I’m Trying to Read by Mary Jo Amani, which won the N.A.E.S.P. prize for best picture book in 2011 in America. She now lives up a hill with her husband and her children in Italy.