I'm a novelist, journalist, broadcaster and author of non-fiction - and I've also had another life at the same time,  which was nothing to do with writing. I have been  a Planning Inspector, chaired public committees, been involved with the NHS and been responsible for protecting water customers.

But I always wanted to be a writer,  ever since I learnt to read. I was born and went to school in London, and then took degrees in Archaeology at Cambridge and in Law at Leicester University. After living in Edinburgh for ten years and for three in Leicester I moved with my husband, the archaeologist Professor Charles Thomas, to Cornwall, where we still live. We have two sons and two daughters.

I belong to PEN, The Crime Writers Association, The Detection Club, The Society of Authors, Forum UK, Hypatia Trust, Mystery Women etc.

Books: My latest novel is The Mystery Writer (Allison & Busby 2006).   OUT OF HARM'S WAY   (2005) is a  non-fiction history  of the Wartime Evacuation of Children from Britain.

I don't write autobiographical novels but have set several  in  places I have lived in: Cornwall, others in Edinburgh, London and various parts of the world. Some have domestic settings, some archaeological. They are often combined with political themes or historical sections.

The books aren't in a series with a single detective, except for six featuring the archaeologist Tamara Hoyland (first encountered in Funeral Sites).

Other characters, major and minor, have reappeared over the years, especially Professor Thea Crawford, and more recently the psychiatrist Dr Fidelis Berlin, whose first appearance is in A Private Inquiry. You can catch up with her in  The Voice From The Grave.

It's always thrilling to hear from readers. So please get in touch if you want to discuss or comment on my work.