Sally Beauman is a prolific author of both popular fiction and romance novels. Born in England, she graduated from Girton College, Cambridge, and entered journalism as a staff writer for New York magazine. She later wrote for The New Yorker, was the youngest woman to be appointed editor of Queen magazine, and became associate editor of the Daily Telegraph. Under the pseudonym Vanessa James, Beauman wrote seven Harlequin romances in the 1980s, including The Fire and the Ice and Give Me This Night. Her popular fiction, written under her own name, includes Destiny (1987), Dark Angel (1990), Lovers and Liars (1994), and Danger Zones (1996). Beauman lives with her family in London.