AK Summer was born and grew up in South London. She lives there with her husband and an elderly, fussy cat. She has spent many years working in universities in London and so was inspired to set her mysteries in the fictional university of Corner Rise. Corner Rise is a fictional archipelago of islands in the Atlantic. There is a corner seamount but, sadly, this does not form any islands. Outside of reading and writing cosy mysteries, AK Summer enjoys sailing and watercolours. It was while sailing from St. Martin in the Caribbean to the Azores that she crossed Corner Seamount and was inspired to set her university on some islands based on the seamount.