Penny is a scientist, a crime writer and an academic who worked in Engineering, Social Science and Health Health Sciences. She was Chair of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society for six years to 2013.

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. Her crime novels are published in the UK, USA and Canada. She writes pre-teen fantasy under the name Melodie Trudeaux.

She was an academic for most of her career, but 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.