I'm a proud native of Suffolk, but now live in Wiltshire, divorced with two adult sons, in a small house with a garden I've made from scratch, and two loving, beautiful, mischievous and entertaining Burmese kittens. I've been writing since I was a small child, and began my first published book at the age of thirteen, though it had been through many revisions and alterations by the time it first saw the light of day, nearly twenty years later. I have since written sixteen novels, all but two of them historical, thirteen of them published. They cover a variety of periods - Anglo-Saxon England at the time of Alfred the Great, the Wars of the Roses, the English Civil War, Restoration England, and the underworld of early Georgian London. I have a history degree and do a great deal of research, which I think is like an iceberg - most of it isn't visible in the story, but without it the whole edifice would keel over and sink! Many of my characters are fictional, but the world in which they move is not, and my mantra has always been, 'These people may not have actually existed, these events might not actually have happened - but they could have done, and they are true to their times.' My many and varied interests often feature in my writing - gardening, animals, children, art, old houses, music and exploring the daily life of people who lived long ago. An author of historical novels needs to know a little about a lot, and my magpie mind certainly helps!
