biography

I worked as a journalist for a few years, but always knew it was not the right career for me and hankered after a quiet room and a book to write. After a few years at the Guardian, I realised my lack of journalistic ambition was not getting me anywhere, and I was writing a column that was entirely fictitious anyway (it was called The Other Half and it was in the sports section. It has long been forgotten). One day I decided, on impulse, to ask the travel editor if I could go backpacking for a year, and write a column about it as I went. I was assuming she would say no. She agreed, so I had to go.

I was away for a year, and came back with the beginnings of the idea for a novel, set in the world of backpackers in Asia. The idea became Backpack, my first book.

Backpack was published by Headline, and won the WH Smith New Talent award. It has been followed by seven more novels, all of them published by Headline.

I now live in Cornwall with my husband and our three children. My new book, The Perfect Lie, will be published in Spring 2010.