My Life

I was brought up in London and around the eastern Mediterranean, attending numerous schools - English, American and French - acquiring little by way of formal education but much experience of other people and cultures. The jobs I did after leaving secretarial school ranged from technical translation to trainee in a PR agency, and then I married young and had children.

Writing came much later, when family responsibilities had diminished. By then I had lived in Oxford for a number of years and so, naturally, that is where I set my novels.

I didn't have to struggle for years against rejection: Deathspell, my first book, was rejected by just one publisher and then picked up immediately by Macmillan. At the time I didn't even have an agent.

I now live in a small village a few miles south of Oxford. I spend most of my time at the word processor, making up for the lost years.