About the authorIn her professional career, Valerie Norris was a Materials Engineer. She was awarded a Royal Society Research Fellowship that took her to Swansea University where she went on to be awarded a Chair and later became Head of the Materials Research Centre. She took early retirement in 2013. The high point of her career was to be honoured with the title 'Welsh Woman of the Year' in 1998, which led to many activities in public life. In 2004, she was invited to Buckingham Palace as one of the 'Top 180 female achievers in the country'. As well as her novels, she has written and published some 370 research papers and five textbooks in a previous name, Valerie Randle, and has given lectures all over the world. She has achieved an entry in Who's Who.Valerie was born and educated in Kidderminster, England. Wales has been her home since she moved there at the age of eighteen with her first husband. She has been widowed twice and met and married the philosopher-poet Christopher Norris not long after her retirement. She has two children, six grandchildren and three step-grandchildren. Valerie likes to spend her time singing in various acapella groups, long-distance walking, practising yoga and meditation, and writing. For the last twenty years she has volunteered with Cruse Bereavement Support.