I grew up in Darlington in the North East of England, studied Russian and German at Cambridge and spent a year in Russia in a city called Voronezh during the early nineties. Lots of vodka, lots of falling over in the snow.

Before I started writing full-time, I used to direct children's television, film and radio. There is less sticky paper and glitter in my life now. Shame. I decided to try and make a career out of writing after I won the Telegraph's First Thousand Words Of A Novel competition in 2007 with the opening scene of Instruments of Darkness, my first book. 

I've written six novels; five in the Georgian Westerman and Crowther series and a standalone, Paris Winter. Paris Winter, Island of Bones and Theft of Life have been shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger.

​I also play the cello and spend a lot of time staring out of my window in Bermondsey, South London.