I was the first member of an Irish immigrant family to be born in England, and storytelling is in my genes. When I left my convent grammar school I went to a Youth Employment Bureau. I told them I loved reading and travel so they sent me for a job in a public library in east London, which was not quite what I had in mind.

I spent several summers hitching around Europe, Turkey and North Africa, which is what we did in those days, and have the dubious distinction of having caught cholera in Libya.

I have worked in engineering and in education, but since 2007 I have concentrated on writing.