My father was a soldier and most of my childhood was spent moving from place to place, school to school, including several years living in Egypt and Germany. I loved some of the schools I attended, but hated others, so it wasn’t too surprising that I left halfway through the sixth form with ‘A’ Levels unfinished. I became a secretary, as many girls did at the time, only to realise that the role of handmaiden wasn’t for me.
Escape beckoned when I landed a job with an airline. I was determined to see as much of the rest of the world as possible and working as cabin crew allowed me to meet a good many interesting people and enjoy some great experiences – riding in the foothills of the Andes, walking by the shores of Lake Victoria, flying pilgrims from Kandahar to Mecca were just a few.
I still love to travel and visit new places, especially those with an interesting history, but the arrival of marriage, children and cats, meant a more settled existence on the south coast of England, where I’ve lived ever since. It also gave me the opportunity to go back to ‘school’ and eventually gain a PhD from the University of Sussex. For many years I taught university literature and loved every minute of it. What could be better than spending my life reading and talking about books? Well, perhaps writing them.
I’ve always had a desire to write but there never seemed time to do more than dabble with the occasional short story. And my day job ensured that I never lost the critical voice in my head telling me that I really shouldn’t bother. But, gradually, the voice started to grow fainter and, at the same time, the idea that I might actually write a whole book began to take hold. My cats – two stunning British Blues – gave their approval, since it meant my spending a good deal more time at home with them!
The nineteenth century was my special period of literature and I grew up reading Georgette Heyer, so when I plucked up the courage to begin writing myself, my first book had to be a Regency romance. I wrote six in all, then followed with something completely different—the Daisy Driscoll trilogy, a suspense saga set in India and wartime England during the 1930s and 40s: The Officer’s Wife, The Officer’s Nurse and The Officer’s Widow.
My characters living their lives against a background of stirring world events became something of a theme and, after Daisy, I set two historical suspense novels in Sussex during the summers of 1914 and 1944 respectively—The Girl from Summerhayes and The Secrets of Summerhayes.
Since then, I fear I’ve turned more and more to the dark side! For the last few years, I’ve been a crime writer, first with the Tremayne Mysteries series and currently the long-running and hugely popular Flora Steele Mysteries. Whatever period, though, and whatever genre, creating new worlds and sharing them with readers gives me enormous pleasure and I can’t think of a better job.
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