Novelist, born in Liverpool, Merseyside, NW England, UK. She studied at the Liverpool College of Art. A convert to Catholicism in her late teens, she spent a brief spell as a postulate nun in a teaching order. She began writing cookery books under her original name but it was The Sin Eater (1977) which established her reputation as a novelist. The 27th Kingdom (1982) is often considered her most successful novel. Other books include Pillars of Gold (1992), Cat Among the Pigeons (1994), Fairy Tale (1996), Valentine’s Day (2000), a religious book, Serpent on the Rock (1994), and an autobiography, A Welsh Childhood (1990). For several years from 1985 she contributed a column ‘Home Life’ to The Spectator, and later wrote for The Universe (1989–1991) and The Catholic Herald. Her last work was Fish, Flesh and Good Red Herring, A Gallimaufry (2004), an examination of cookery through the ages.