As a child, Anna Cleary loved reading so much that during the midnight hours she was forced to read with a torch under the bedcovers, to lull the suspicions of her sleep-obsessed parents. From an early age she dreamed of writing her own books. She saw herself in a stone cottage by the sea, wearing a velvet smoking jacket and sipping sherry, like Somerset Maugham. In real life she became a schoolteacher, where her greatest pleasure was teaching children to write beautiful stories. A little while ago, she and one of her friends made a pact to each write the first chapter of a romance novel in their holidays. From writing her very first line, Anna was hooked, and she gave up teaching to become a full-time writer. She now lives in Queensland, Australia, with a deeply sensitive and intelligent cat. She prefers champagne to sherry and loves music, books, four-legged people, trees, movies and restaurants.