Vivien Brown

Vivien Brown was born and grew up in Middlesex and still lives there today with her husband and two cats. Following an early career in banking and accountancy, the lure of working with words instead of numbers became too strong to resist and she went on to spend the happiest years of her working life reading with the under-fives in children’s centres and libraries while writing short stories for women’s magazines in her spare time.

Vivien went on to train as an adult education creative writing tutor and started writing novels, specialising in women’s fiction with domestic drama and family relationships at its heart. She is a past winner of the annual Mail on Sunday ‘Best Opening to a Novel’ competition and reached the shortlist again three years later.

Vivien is a fellow and honorary secretary of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists (SWWJ) where she oversees writing competitions and social media, and is a member of theRomantic Novelists’ Association and a reader for its New Writers Scheme. She is also a regular tutor at the annual Swanwick Writers’ Summer School.

Away from writing, Vivien loves playing with her grandchildren, watching and occasionally taking part in TV quiz shows, is an avid reader and reviewer of women’s fiction, and enjoys the challenge of both solving and compiling cryptic crosswords.