To begin at the beginning. I was born in Hong Kong, to an English working-class Dad who managed to bluff his way into the Civil Service and an English working-class Mum who managed to bluff her way into pretty much anything. The talent for bluffing led to us living in three of the four nations of the UK (your day will come, Northern Ireland), in Bahrain and in pre-revolutionary Iran. When I grew up I decided maybe I’d put down a few roots, and came to rest in York.

As a kid, the bluffing expertise served me well in many, many different educational establishments in many, many different places. There were a couple of state primaries, a thing taught by mothers at the back of a church, a state comprehensive, a couple of grammar schools, an O Level correspondence course, a tiny and rather odd boarding school, and finally a university. I did a BA in History, and ten years later an MA in Women’s Studies, specialising in literature. Half-way through the MA I got pregnant, so I combined both of my then preoccupying interests by doing a dissertation on the portrayal of motherhood in 1950s science fiction. The subject is weirder than you think.

My subsequent varied but never rich career took in life modelling, selling encyclopaedias door to door, booking bands, counselling, working with substance users, providing homelessness advice, child protection, and working with local
authority adult services. Along the way I managed to acquire a second child and four cats. These days I’m a full-time writer, except for the time I spend being domestic staff to the one remaining cat.