I gained an M.A. from the University of East Anglia and taught for the Open University on the Humanities Foundation course in subjects as diverse as history, philosophy, music and religion.

Since then I have written full time as a playwright and have written many contemporary romances as well as the libretti for several chamber operas. I ran a lunchtime theatre in York above a medieval coaching inn, have written for street theatre groups and worked with installation artists on various projects.

I am now writing the Abbess of Meaux series of historical mystery novels set in fourteenth century Europe. I'm pleased to be able to draw on travels in France and Tuscany and bring together my interests in music, politics and history.

The first in the Abbess of Meaux series was published in 2008. The third, The Law of Angels, set in York during the annual Mystery Plays, is out in March 2011, to be followed by The Parliament of Spies, a novel about London, Westminster and politics.