Lucinda Riley was born in Ireland and, after an early career as an actress in film, theatre and television, wrote her first novel aged twenty-four. Her books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and The Seven Sisters series specifically has become a global phenomenon, creating its own genre.

In 2020, Lucinda received the Dutch Platinum Award for sales of over 300,000 copies for a single novel in one year – an award last won by J. K. Rowling for Harry Potter. In collaboration with her son Harry Whittaker, she also devised and wrote the Guardian Angels series of books for children.

Though she brought up her four children mostly in Norfolk, England, she fulfilled her dream in 2015 of buying a remote farmhouse in West Cork, Ireland, which she always felt was her spiritual home, and this was where her last five books were written.

Lucinda was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and died on 11 June 2021, surrounded by her family.

Harry Whittaker grew up in the 1990s and spent the first few years of his life on the rural west coast of Ireland. The son of the author Lucinda Riley, Harry became a storyteller himself, as an award-winning radio presenter for the BBC and a member of one of the UK’s most renowned improv troupes. In 2019, Harry and Lucinda co-authored the Guardian Angels series for children – four reassuring, timeless stories addressing worries that a small child may have.

After Lucinda’s death in 2021, it was announced that Harry would complete the Seven Sisters series on behalf of his late mother. Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt publishes globally in May 2023.

Harry lives in Yorkshire, England.