I was born in Derbyshire and live in London. A writer, editor and independent lecturer, I teach literature by women writers from earlier periods, and life-writing and am particularly interested in the larger narratives behind ordinary lives.

I teach at London's City Lit and have run study days and workshops at the Women's Library, London Metropolitan University, and the City University. I have lectured at the V&A, given talks at festivals and other venues, and appeared on radio. I have also written book reviews and occasional journalism. I am a former editorial director of Virago.






I'm the author of the family memoir, Lemon Sherbet and Dolly Blue: The Story of an Accidental Family (Atlantic Books 2011) and the biography, Clarice Cliff (Bloomsbury, 2005). I have also edited two collection­s of short stories, Dangerous Calm: The Selected Stories of Elizabeth Taylor (Virago 1995) and The Secret Woman: Classics Women's Short Stories (Virago 1993; reissued 2000), and abridged The Diaries of Beatrice Webb (Virago & LSE 2000).­­

This mizpah brooch, one of many bought during the First World War by young men and women saying goodbye to their sweethearts, belonged to my grandma, Annie. The brooch sat on my desk while I was writing my new book, as did the silk handkerchief Annie embroidered to put in a frame on the wall. I live surrounded by family objects that tell their own stories.

I've enjoyed writing about some of them in Lemon Sherbet and Dolly Blue: The Story of an Accidental Family. Annie's silver pen-wipe sits on a shelf in my bookcase; a squat grey tin, which held biscuits in the years when my great-grandma ran a corner shop, contains only paper-clips now. Annie looks down at my desk from my favourite photograph of her. I hope she would like what I've written.

Writing the memoir­ enabled me to revisit the 1920s and 30s, key decades in the life of Clarice Cliff, the subject of my first book, and a period that's long fascinated me. Some of my favourite writers came to prominence then, and I've long had a weakness for the clothes, the decor, the jewellry... But the memoir also enabled me to write about the two world wars and their impact on individual lives. And ­though my new book is about my family, it isn't about me - it's the story of the three adoptees within it.