Beneath the Hope Tree: an autobiography

The youngest of four daughters, I was born in London in 1947. My family moved to the north west of England, two years later. I wrote my first book at 12 years old, an adventure story for children, whilst I was recovering from a bad case of tonsillitis.

I combined a busy family life in my thirties, with writing fictional short stories for a number of magazines, plus a series of short picture stories specifically for my toddler son.

It wasn't until the 1990's, when I concentrated on writing crime fiction novels, starting with the Sophie Curtiss Murder Mysteries. During the early 'noughties' I wrote scripts for TV soaps and radio plays.