Ellie Baker grew up in London, UK. While travelling she fell in love with New Zealand and her Kiwi husband-to-be in 1987.

Ellie has lived on a lifestyle block in Mangatangi, for over twenty years. She said that the rural community has been a great place to bring up their four children. She has been employed as a financial analyst, fundraiser, facilitator, and is now an accountant.

Her first book has just been published, although she has had poems and short stories published in Franklin Creative Writers Tall Tales and Short Stories Volume 1 & 2 (2000, 2001).

In August 2014 Ellie launched her first published book, The Emotional Challenges of Immigration, Strategies and stories of those who stayed. She was inspired to write this self-help book after noticing that there are core issues facing immigrants, and yet there was no book around to help them through those stages. She interviewed twenty five immigrant women which gave her a wide source of information to identify the main issues and to find strategies to overcome them. This information combined with her experiences; twenty seven years since her emigration and being part of a transnational marriage for nearly as long, provided the basis for a “book packed with psychological depth and practical strategies” (Henriette Politano, PBANZ.)