I

Before I became an author I spent 30+ years carving out a career in advertising – starting circa 1985. This seems almost prehistoric!! The nineteen- eighties was an era of hideously permed hair, huge shoulder pads and Madonna. It was also long before women even had a sniff of equal pay, long before maternity leave entitlements were granted, while the #metoo movement was barely an embryo in the wombs of women’s rights.

My career as an ad-land story-teller and strategist afforded me a rare window into the international world of creativity; the study of human behaviour; and the resilience required to overcome obstacles as a woman and mother, working in a male dominated industry. So don’t be surprised to see these themes woven throughout my stories.

My first novel, The Eighth Wonder (July 2021 by Penguin Random House) is set in NYC’s gilded age of 1897 and tells the story of an aspiring female architect and her struggle to make her mark on the Manhattan skyline.

War of Hearts, my second novel (September 2023), is set in 1917/18 against the backdrop of a world convulsing under the twin stressors of The Great War and the Spanish Flu. It tells the story of a pioneering female reporter who must work with a Catholic priest to run intelligence out of occupied France for the British spy network La Dame Blanche.

In terms of books I love to read; I’m omnivorous! I love all genres, crime, suspense, romance, literary etc; but the ones that always have my heart are well researched stories that feature fearless females.

What other things are close to my heart?

Coffee, classical ballet, leg-warmers in winter, surf in summer, libraries, museums, travel. And of course – my husband, my daughters, family and friends and fur-babies .