Born 1971 in Farnham, Surrey; grew up in Hampshire with Mum, Dad, elder brother and a series of ill-fated pets. It would be pretentious (and untrue) to say I was reading and writing stories before I could walk. But I was reading and writing stories before I could master certain practical skills, such as tying shoelaces or telling the time.

At the age of 11 I won an exhibition to a minor public school in the depths of West Sussex, (which has since closed down and been converted into high-end weekend apartments for stressed-out London executives: one can only assume it never survived featuring in the Independent’s list of the Top Ten Worst Fee-Paying Schools in the UK).

Relocated to Bristol for my A-levels; fell in love with the city. Read French & Russian at Exeter University, then fulfilled my ambition of moving to Paris and becoming a translator. Got a part-time job as a junior lecturer at a university in the west of Paris and began studying for a Masters in Contemporary Theatre at Paris X. After a few months of sheer misery (I was the only foreigner and the only non-Thesp, so somewhat ostracized), I quit and switched to Translation at a branch of the University of London in Paris.

Graduated full of lofty ambitions of translating the works of promising young French authors into English, but soon discovered how difficult it was to break into the closed circle of literary translators. Spent a few years dashing about the Greater Paris region juggling teaching gigs at a variety of establishments ranging from third-rate language schools to a prestigious grande école, with the odd freelance translation job for agencies. Then, with marriage, a baby and a mortgage, I decided to settle down and get a steady, permanent job. Consequently, I spent the next two decades doing hackwork – translating comms and marketing stuff for corporations – all the while writing short stories and novels in my spare time. Started learning Italian in 2016 and now do Italian- as well as French-to-English translation.

My life changed in 2019 when the last of the abovementioned corporations made me redundant, and since then I’ve been writing full-time and working as a freelance translator. Still living in Paris with my husband of 23 years; our 21-year-old daughter has flown the nest.

A voracious reader, I love contemporary literary fiction and classics alike – particularly nineteenth-century English and French classics and quality crime fiction/psychological thrillers, with a particular penchant for Dickens, Trollope, Wilkie Collins, Daphne du Maurier, Maupassant, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine and Jonathan Coe.

What else can I say about myself? Sporadically enthusiastic swimmer and runner. Seasoned traveller. Passionate dissectologist. Recovering shoe addict. Inveterate, unrepentant Italophile and art lover with a serious Caravaggio fetish. My ambitions are to see all the Caravaggios in the world, achieve complete fluency in Italian and live in a converted lighthouse, water tower or windmill. And have my own brand of gin.