I was bought up in a busy pub in a market town called Lutterworth. For as long as I remember, I wanted to be an actress and writer. I was offered a television role when I was sixteen, but my mother wanted me to have a 'proper' job, so I did a hairdressing apprenticeship instead. Eight years later, aged twenty-four, I sold two successful businesses for a place at East 15 Drama College and a career as an actress, working in Repertory theatre, the West End, film and television.In 2000 I gave up acting, taught myself to touch type, completed a two-year college course and began writing articles and presenting radio. In 2010, after living in London for thirty-six years, I returned to Lutterworth, swapping two window boxes and a mortgage for a garden and the freedom to write - and I loved it. Since then, I have written a series of ten novels. The first four books, set in World War Two, introduce the Dudley sisters. Three post-war books follow, and then three mystery, crime and spy thrillers take the Dudley sisters to 1960. Each story stands alone but is interwoven with the other stories.