Penny is a scientist, a crime writer and an academic (Health Professional Studies), and currently Chair of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society which is the largest writers’ organisation in the world. A writer all her life, she penned her first story at age 4 and won her first writing competition at age 9. In 2004 she won the Crime Writers’ Association’s Debut Dagger for her book, The Doll Makers. She has worked in a variety of jobs, having been on the inside of pathology labs, operating theatres and medical schools across Europe. Home is with her husband and a transient population of family members and animals in an old farmhouse in a small East Yorkshire village.