Berlie Doherty

Berlie Doherty was born in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, the youngest of three children. She always wanted to be a writer, but when she was little there were many things she wanted to be - a singer, ballet dancer, air hostess, librarian... Her serious writing started at university, where she trained to be a teacher. Now she lives in an isolated cottage in the country and writes in a barn overlooking the Pennines. She says of her writing: "After I finish a book I'm quite sad because I feel grieved that I have lost someone close; a great deal of myself is in my books."