nell leyshon was born and grew up in somerset, and spent half of her childhood in glastonbury, and the other half in a small farming village on the edge of the somerset levels. she had a mixed education, and ended up attending art college for a year before moving to london. a first career culminated in working as a production assistant then producer in tv commercials for directors including ridley and tony scott. she gave it up to spend a year in spain with her boyfriend dominic, who remains her partner. she returned pregnant. she attended the university of southampton as a mature student. only after the birth of her second son in 1995 she started to write seriously.