As a child Tamara Macfarlane practically lived in Blackwell's Children's Bookshop in Oxford. Later in Cambridge she read more children's books whilst studying English and Education and specialising in Children's Literature. After a number of years spent as a literacy co-ordinator trying to persuade children in schools that the world inside books was generally a lot more interesting than the real world, Tamara had her first child and decided she would like to live in a children's bookshop again. As she couldn't find one that she liked she founded the award winning Tales on Moon Lane bookshop in Herne Hill, subsequently opening a second shop in Primrose Hill, filling it with even more of her favourite books.