Author

Originally born in Edinburgh, I grew up in the North West of England, went to the universities of Manchester and Oxford, specialising in 17th-century Spanish comic drama. 

 Although I started out as a translator, I escaped via a turbulent and circuitous route of journalism and educational publishing to expand my interests to include botanical history, science fiction, local history, architecture, cocktails, wine-making and avoiding DIY. I’m also a fan of Insular art and other early Medieval stuff inspired by my daughter Lauren, a History of Art graduate and MA student at Edinburgh.

I returned to writing to combat the ‘empty nest’ syndrome and I’m now the author of several novels and stories, beginning with The Lost Orchid. One day, she found herself walking my dogs round Guy’s Cliffe (pictured), a beauty spot by the River Avon, not far from Kenilworth in Warwickshire, thinking ‘to hell with a career’ and so took the plunge into writing for herself.

My first novel is THE LOST ORCHID, a tale of intrigue set against the heady backdrop of so-called 'orchid fever' when wealthy clamoured for ever more exotic blooms, and ruthless dealers despatched their most determined and cunning plant hunters to the furthest reaches of the British Empire.  
 

The research was so much fun that I became somewhat addicted to orchids, hence this blog.

I was obviously addicted to writing as well and kept going. I'm now the author of eight books and a several stories. Half my books are historical fiction, while the rest are fantasy adventures. One title, Half Life, is a co-production with my husband, Rob Deeth, a newly-retired (although you wouldn’t know it) professor of inorganic computational chemistry and flying buff. Dark Interlude is a romantic adventure set in a turbulent winter of 1918-1919 when revolution was in the air.

Currently, I am working on The Blackfern Conspiracy, an action-packed sequel to The Lost Orchid, as well as a dark murder mystery called Machiavelli’s Acolyte, set in 17th-century Eastern Europe, introducing the death-magnet, Viktor Radislav. Of course, that’s not his real name.

I have plans for a Flora McPhairson sequel, THE BLACKFERN CONSPIRACY, inspired by another botanical craze, pteridomania, a passion for ferns that swept Britain in the late 1800s.  The story takes place in the misty Trossachs, where Flora and her uncle are in residence to collect ferns to restock the nursery. Flora is soon up to her neck in intrigue. A wave of anarchist bombings has hit a string of cities across the country and there is mood of political unease.

As events unfurl, she even has cause to doubt her new love, William Carter, and wonder about his true loyalties. Battling with her emotions is one thing, but she soon has to tackle all manner of sinister forces as she is lured into an icy labyrinth, set upon on the grim backstreets of Edinburgh, almost poisoned by deadly funghi and nearly drowned in a booby-trapped bog. What is Carter’s real role in the affair? And can she survive her a desperate bid to find out just who is behind a fiendish plot to destabilise the British Monarchy itself?

The final title in the series, DEADLY ALPINE, is in its earlier stages.