Briony was born in 1944 and her early life was spent in the Welsh valleys. In 1955, her father, a newly trained teacher, moved the family to one of the new towns surrounding London. Briony went directly to Hemel Hempstead Grammar School and from there to St Albans School of Art in 1960. In the second year, she met Peter and they married in 1965. In the early 1980s she did an Open University degree, a BA in Art History and Humanities.
She has taught art, helped run a nursery, worked in infant and junior schools and towards the end of her career became ‘the designated person' for child protection at her last school.
She and Peter now live in Carmarthenshire.
She has never written before other than essays and child protection reports, but just sat down in lockdown and wrote this.