Pamela Allen was born in New Zealand in 1934. She graduated with a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Elam School in Auckland and later became a secondary school art teacher.

In 1964 Pamela married sculptor and lecturer Jim Allen. During their children's pre-school years, Pamela became involved with the Playcentre Movement, a pre-school co-operative that relies for its success on developing an awareness among parents of 'good parenting'. Pamela says that it was during this period that she really got to know the children who are now her enthusiastic readers.

Pamela Allen is the first illustrator to have won the Australian Picture Book of the Year Award two years running, first for Who Sank The Boat? and the following year for Bertie and the Bear. She has won several other prestigious awards in Australia and New Zealand.

She now lives in Sydney and is writing and illustrating full-time.