Cynthia Harrod-Eagles was born in London in 1948. She attended the University of Edinburgh and University College London, where she studied English, history and philosophy. She wrote her first novel while in college and won the Young Writers' Award for The Waiting Game in 1972, but did not become a full-time writer until 1979 with the start of the Morland Dynasty series. In 1993, she won the RNA Novel of the Year Award for Emily, the third volume of the Kirov Trilogy. She also writes the Bill Slider Mystery series and under the pen names Elizabeth Bennett and Emma Woodhouse.