Joyce Marlow was born and bred in Manchester. She started her working life as an actress before turning to full-time writing. Her published works include The Peterloo Massacre, The Tolpuddle Martyrs, Mr and Mrs Gladstone, Captain Boycott and the Irish, The Uncrowned Queen of Ireland: A Life of O'Shea and Kessie, Sarah, Anne - a trilogy of novels set around the First World War. She also edited The Virago Book of Women and the Great War. Married with two sons she lives in the High Peak district of Derbyshire.