Ethel Lina White was born in Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, Wales in 1876. She initially worked for the Ministry of Pensions but quit her job in order to write. She is the author of over fifteen mysteries and thrillers, several of which were made into films. The Wheel Spins, a masterpiece of suspense writing about a beautiful young girl on a train and her missing companion, was immortalised by Alfred Hitchcock as The Lady Vanishes. Vastly successful in her day, White was as well-known as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers but fell into obscurity following her sudden death in 1944.