Annie Murray was born in Wallingford in Berkshire, a stone's throw away from the Thames. Her father had been a soldier in North Africa and Italy in World War Two. His enthusiasm for going back there took us travelling every year in a caravan, where they had all sorts of adventures, most of them not life threatening. She remember my Dad teaching her arithmetic under a palm tree on the edge of the Sahara desert. After training unenthusiastically as a journalist she found a job with a charity in Birmingham. Soon after, she got married and had four gorgeous babies who are now much bigger than this but still smiling heroically! The first of her regional sagas, Birmingham Rose, was published in 1995. She has now published thirteen books with Pan Macmillan, and there are more on the way.