Elizabeth Baines

Elizabeth Baines was born in South Wales. Her grandmother claimed to be descended from the family of the eighteenth-century Welsh plasterer-bard Will Hopkin, and undeterred by the fact that there was no proof of this, Elizabeth decided at an early age to be a writer in his footsteps. Her acclaimed novels and short stories expose the power we hold over each other, the secrets we keep from each other, and the ways in which even our fantasies can alter our lives and those of others for ever. Her collection of stories Balancing on the Edge of the World (Salt Publishing, 2007), has received widespread enthusiasm and spent several days in the Amazon UK Bestseller short stories list. Her most recent book, the novel Too Many Magpies (Salt, 2009), has been similarly praised. Salt have also reissued her first novel, the acclaimed The Birth Machine.

'One of those books I had to force myself to put down just so the experience of reading it wouldn't end.' - Tania Hershman, on the story collection Balancing on the Edge of the World

'I read most of this book in one sitting as I could not drag myself away from its eerie storytelling... An accomplished, thoughtful novel that offers us a strange new lens with which to view the world' - Lisa Glass, on Too Many Magpies

Elizabeth writes the well-regarded Fictionbitch blog (http://fictionbitch.blogspot.com) and her own author blog (http://elizabethbaines.blogspot.com). Her website is at www.elizabethbaines.com.