Place and date of birthday:  
At home, in Cliviger, just outside Burnley, Lancashire, on 6th October 1958

My favourite book: 
Hmmm, tricky.  Different books for different moods.  Perhaps The Black Riders by Violet Needham.  That's my comfort book - that or the My Friend Flicka trilogy.

My favourite song? 
Barcelona by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe (check out fabulous video on YouTube)

My favourite film? 
Oh dear, I love so many.  Moulin Rouge for oddness, Being Julia for fun, The Age of Innocence for beauty, Pretty Woman for feel good, anything with Julie Christie, Breaking the Waves for being wrung out

Most treasured possession? 
A drawing of Miss Muffet, the inspiration for Hosanna in the de Granville Trilogy, by artist Bridget Tempest

When did I start writing? 
I started writing seriously as a journalist in 1997, and as an author in 2002

Ideas and inspiration come from everywhere: 
My odd family, other people (I'm a terrible ear-wigger), old buildings, pictures, idle gossip

Three tips for becoming a successful author? 
Read, look, listen

Favourite place in the world: 
The top of the Cliviger Gorge in Lancashire, beside my mother's memorial stone.  Why?  It's wild, wet and windy and I pretend to be one of the Bronte sisters, the one they never discovered.

Hobbies? 
Playing the piano, learning Russian, dreaming

What would I have been, if not an author? 
A catastrophe or perhaps a better mother