I was an actress before I became a writer and trained at The Guildhall School of Drama. My father’s family was from Liverpool which was where I was brought up. He was one of ten, his mother was widowed before the war and the children for a short time were placed in an orphanage, which meant that they would have been what were known as ‘orphans of the living’. I am fortunate to have been brought up hearing a wealth of stories about their lives in Liverpool during the war and after, tales of the docks, the city rebuilding, the challenges and triumphs, loves and tragedies, and always the humour and resilience. 

I am part of an acting family (I am married to Peter Davison, an ex Doctor Who and the step mother-in-law of another Doctor Who). I sometimes wonder if one of the reasons I was so driven to write my Liverpool sagas was to get away from all the sci-fi in the house. My version of time travel!

After working as an actress (I had two small boys and wanted to work from home) I went to the Royal Court Young Writers Group. I then began writing scripts. I have written for C4 Films, BBC Films, the soap opera Doctors and received a bursary from ITV spending time in the story conference room on Coronation Street. I have also written for Brief Lives Radio 4 drama series. I am an award winning short story writer. I have won prizes in Margery Allingham Short Story Crime award, Bath Short Story award, London Writer’s Competition, and several others, but my journey to published author took off when I was runner up in the Trisha Ashley short story competition. Trisha recommended me to my agent Judith Murdoch. My first two books are published by Penguin, and I have three books out by PanMacmillan, two more commissioned in my Eliza Morton Orphans trilogy. 

I hope to continue writing my books for as long as I have breath in me. I can’t imagine running out of ideas. Liverpool has so many stories to tell and I feel happy and proud to be part of retelling them through my books.