Here are 4 things she’d like to share with you about herself.

1. I love the sea. I love to swim in it, sail upon it and walk beside it. I love the sea in all its moods; turbulent, kindly, ferocious, restorative, deadly, magnanimous yet singleminded. It stills my mind, my eyes focus to the horizon, the dazzling sun, the callous rain, the cataclysmic winds all find me. I am a child of the sea.
2. I lived for 20 years in New Zealand and still miss it. I have set my next book, a novel, in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds at the top of the South Island, where drowned river valleys form spectacular scenery, and treacherous conditions for sailing. It is set in a fishing village where a new inhabitant disturbs its equilibrium.
3. I was born and brought up in London, and still miss it. I owe my education to my Dad who believed that girls should have careers not husbands. I achieved both, plus two children, so life has been busy and hard work. I’m so lucky that I always loved my work in health and education, and my children have been my biggest educators, my grandchildren now taking over that role.
4. I have always been a feminist, from when I was not allowed to go out on the herring fishing boat, or down the clay mines, during a childhood holiday, while my brother was. I have spent my whole life negotiating around stereotypes about what I should be doing and how I should behave.