Sharon Lambert (nee Deehan) was born in Lancaster and has lived in the city all her life. She studied history as a mature student and graduated from Lancaster University with a BA and a PhD. Her doctoral thesis was based on an oral history of Irish women's emigration. She has taught social history courses at all levels, for Lancaster University, the University of Central Lancashire, the Workers Educational Association and the Adult College, Lancaster. She is an honorary research fellow in Lancaster University's Centre for North West Regional Studies and now works as a freelance social historian and oral history and reminiscence consultant, but continues to teach adults in the community. She writes a monthly 'Life-History' column in the Lancaster Guardian and her previous publications include: Monks Martyrs and Mayors: The History of Lancaster's Roman Catholic Community and Cathedral (1991); Irish Women in Lancashire, 1922-1960: Their Story (2001); Fumigating the Cat and other stories from the Marsh History Group (edited with Nigel Ingham, 2004). In 2003 she received a British Association of Local History Publication Award for an article about her community history classes on the Marsh Estate, Lancaster.