Judy Ford is a "child of the manse", her father being a Methodist minister who spent much of his working life in academia. She attended Lady Margaret Hall, a college of the University of Oxford, gaining a degree in mathematics in 1979. While she was there she met her husband, Neville, another mathematics student and they married shortly after graduation. They moved back to his home town of Widnes, near Liverpool, and have lived in the Cheshire/Merseyside area ever since. Judy's working life has been varied, including a brief time in industry, several periods in university posts in Mathematics, Computer Science and Earth Sciences departments, ten years as a research manager in the National Health Service and an eleven year career break while bringing up three children (all now mathematics graduates!). Since leaving the NHS, Judy has been working part time at the University of Chester while devoting up to three days per week to her passion of writing. She writes for pleasure, but hopes that there may be people out there who will enjoy reading about the characters that she has created as much as she enjoys telling their stories. As Methodist Local Preacher, Judy often tells her congregation, "I see my role as asking the questions and leaving you to think out your own answers." She carries this philosophy forward into her writing and she hopes that readers will find themselves challenged to think as well as being entertained.