
I was born near Liverpool and grew up first on the Wirral and then in Cheshire. Although the greater part of my childhood was spent outside pursuing any number of outdoor activities, I have always wanted to be a writer. I am passionate about writing and unembarrassed to be so. I love researching my books, especially when they involve meeting people and finding out about their lives. I have a little study in the attic of our house with one of the best views in Oxford – the dreaming spires seen from Iffley. I write in the mornings after the children have gone to school and find the problem is not sticking to the routine but tearing myself away from writing at the end of the day. I describe myself as a biographer and historian but the most important thing for me is to be a story teller.

Fashion, Power and a Century of Change
2024

The Story of Audrey Withers, Vogue editor extraordinaire from the Blitz to the Swinging Sixties
2020

Style in the Second World War
2015

The Quest for Sandy Irvine
2000

2013

The Secret Life of Britain's Country Houses 1939-45
2018

The History of the Commonweath War Graves Commission
2007

Women's Stories of Men Returning from the Second World War
2008

Philip Toosey and the Bridge on the River Kwai
2005

Sandy Irvine, George Mallory, and the Truth Still Buried on Everest
2026

Sandy Irvine, George Mallory, and the Truth Still Buried on Everest
2026

Stories of Wartime Evacuees
2011