About

I'm Sarah – that's me, in my natural habitat (my writing desk, in my comfies) – and I'm the author of the Westminster Mysteries.

 

I’ve always loved stories. It began with the bedtime stories my dad read to me every night when I was a child. But the truth is, I came late to reading for myself. I found learning to read difficult. And there was no joy in reading then, when I couldn’t read to myself with the same wonderful fluency that my dad had read to me. I didn’t fall back in love with books until I was about twelve years old. I remember the exact moment it happened.

 

I was sitting in the school library, at a white Formica desk for ten. I had selected The Ruby in the Smoke by Phillip Pullman for reading time. I liked the cover. It was blue and grey and smokey, with a blood-red ruby smack in the middle. The story began with a description of the main character and the words, ‘Her name was Sally Lockhart; and within fifteen minutes, she was going to kill a man.’

 

I devoured that book and the next one. And the one after that. I’ve never been the same since. From then onwards, whenever anyone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I told them I wanted to be a writer.

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I grew up in London and went to school in Westminster, with politicians' children. My experiences at school and interest in politics inspired the idea for the Westminster Mysteries series. Mystery in the Palace of Westminster is my debut novel.  I've been a book editor for nearly 15 years and now live in Buckinghamshire, where I spend my time reading, writing and pottering on my balcony garden.