I was born and grew up in Washington, DC. After graduating with a BA in English from Oberlin College in Ohio, I moved to London in the mid-1980s. I now have dual nationality, but my accent is still American.
I worked for several years in publishing as a reference book editor, while writing short stories on the side. Eventually I decided to focus on my own words rather than others’, and left office life to do an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. There I began my first novel, The Virgin Blue. After my second novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring, took off I was able to write full-time. I’ve written 11 novels so far, and am working on my 12th.
It's hard to write 8 hours a day; after a while words start to fail. So I do other things too. I’ve also been involved with various organizations: as a Trustee of the British Library, the Society of Authors, the Royal Literary Fund, and the Dorset Museum & Art Gallery; as a Patron of the Dorchester Literary Festival, Lyme Regis Museum, Fine Cell Work charity; and as an Ambassador for the Woodland Trust and First Story charity.
I do a lot of research for my novels since they are mainly set in other times and places. If possible I like to do what my characters do, as then it’s easier to understand it and describe it. So I tried painting when I wrote Pearl Earring; quilting for The Last Runaway; needlepoint for A Single Thread; glass beads for The Glassmaker. I visited a weaving studio for The Lady and the Unicorn; spent time with redwoods and sequoias for At the Edge of the Orchard; looked for fossils on the beaches near Lyme Regis for Remarkable Creatures. Here are some pictures of my research adventures.
