Su Bristow grew up in Surrey, the eldest child of parents who were both migrants from the big city; her father from inner London and her mother from Glasgow. 

Her father worked in a factory making boxes for aeroplane parts and books became Su's joy and my refuge as soon as she could read.
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Su attended Girton College, Cambridge, and studied Archaeology and Anthropology.

In January 2017, Orenda Books published Su's debut novel, Sealskin​, a work of fiction set in the Hebrides that is a re-working of the Scottish legend of the selkies, or seals, who can turn in to people.