Mary Mackie was born in Lincoln during the Second World War. After leaving school she worked as an accounts clerk before she met and married her husband Chris, who was in the R.A.F. They spent some years in Berlin and West Germany and it was there that she began her career as a writer. She has had 60 books published, mostly romantic novels. Her second book about life in a National Trust House, DRY ROT AND DAFFODILS, is also published by Orion. Her husband was the Administrator of Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk.