this website is under construction People sometime imagine authors to lead intellectually challenging lives in libraries but I have to confess to living in a tragically small flat in Mayfair London – too small too even keep a hen, which is my favourite animal followed closely by cats, rabbits, dogs and well basically anything else with a heartbeat! I do dream of one day having a rabbit and taking it for little hops in Berkeley square. As it is I just have to play with other peoples pets for now. Besides I have my hands full during the day arguing with my temperamental laptop, “Nancy Mitford” and after I’ve exhausted writing as a source of fun, I like to party like a wild thing till dawn. I have written six published adult comedy fiction books, articles for Marie Claire, Vogue, Elle and that sort of thing but mostly I love writing books. It’s nice to get to know characters and live in their world with them. I especially love Calypso because however lovely she might seem she always feels a bit of an outsider which as an author I relate to. I totally loved my all girls’ convent school so I wasn’t surprised that all three of my children ran away to boarding school the first chance they got. My sons ran off when they were 13 and 10, citing their hatred of strap-hanging on the tube in London two hours a day. I begged them to come home and promised them all sorts of treats but it was pointless, they were soon addicted to the freedom and fun of so much time with their friends. Don’t get me wrong they still complained about their teachers and lessons though! My two sons and daughter (along with all my friends, most of whom attended boarding school) remain my main source of inspiration. I decided to make Calypso a fencer (or rather a sabreur) instead of a tennis fiend because I always fancied myself as a bit of a fencer, (although I wasn’t very good because mostly I just fancied the boys who fenced)! I did urge all my children to try a little fencing though and in fact my eldest son was one of the top sabreurs in the under sixteen’s in Britain. I still love sleep over parties (the sort where no one sleeps) as my thirteen-year-old daughter Cordelia knows only too well...