title: Gaynor Arnold
text: # Gaynor Arnold
  
  Gaynor Arnold (born 1944) is a Welsh-born author. Born in Cardiff, she studied English Literature at St. Hilda's College, Oxford, and obtained a Diploma in Social and Administrative Studies from the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford.
  
  ## Background
  
  Since the early 1970s, Arnold has lived in Edgbaston in Birmingham, working as a social worker for Birmingham City Council. She became a full-time writer in 2009.
  
  ## Recognitions
  
  Her debut novel Girl in a Blue Dress was published by Birmingham's Tindal Street Press in 2008, being longlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction.
  
  