ABOUT ME

With my latest novel, The
Body Parts in the Library

These days I divide my time between writing crime novels and short stories and writing about Italy. I also have a part-time job working in a village library and I do some freelance communications work for long-standing clients.

I am a big supporter of libraries and a champion of the role of the Library Assistant, which I hope comes across in my latest novel, The Body Parts in the Library, published in September 2020.

I was a journalist for more than 35 years, working in newspapers, television and PR.

About ten years ago I started writing about Italy as a freelance travel writer and then I combined my interest in Italy with my fascination for detective fiction by writing my first two crime novels, Death in the High City (2014) and The Shooting in Sorrento (2017), which are both Butler and Bartorelli mysteries set in different parts of Italy.

I chose to set my third novel, The Body Parts in the Library, in a village in south Yorkshire. The novel introduces the Library Ladies, Sallie Parker and Jo Pudsey. I know Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire very well. I was born in Nottingham and my first job in journalism was as a reporter on the Nottingham Evening Post. 

Talking about one of my earlier books to
an audience in the city of Bergamo, in Italy

I later spent some happy years working on a newspaper in Sheffield, the Morning Telegraph, which was where I met my husband, Jon Culley, who is a national newspaper sports writer.

We now live in Leicestershire and have two grown-up children. I like to spend as much time in Italy as possible, but when I am at home I make do with cooking Italian food, eating Italian food, reading about Italy and writing about Italy.

I am a holder of the Institute of Linguists Diploma in Italian and for more than 30 years I have been a member of the Dante Alighieri Society, a society for promoting the Italian culture and language abroad.

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