Part of Pip Granger's early childhood was spent in the back seat of a light aircraft as her father smuggled brandy, tobacco and books across the English Channel to be sold in 1950s Soho, where she lived above The Two Is Cafe in Old Compton Street. She travelled in Europe and Asia in the 1980s, before quitting teaching to pursue her long-cherished ambition to write. In 2000 her first novel, Not All Tarts Are Apple, won the Harry Bowling Prize for fiction, her second novel is The Widow Ginger. Pip Granger now lives in the West Country with her husband and pets.