Maggie Alderson was born in London, brought up in Staffordshire and educated at the University of St Andrews. She has worked on nine magazines – editing four of them – and two newspapers. Her previous novels are Pants on Fire, Mad About the Boy and Handbags and Gladrags. She has also published two collections of fashion journalism, Shoe Money and Handbag Heaven, and was a co-editor of the charity anthologies Big Night Out and Ladies Night, in aid of War Child. She is married with one daughter.