Helen is the author of the novel The Backstreets of Purgatory (Unbound, 2018). She was brought up in the Lake District and the north-east of Scotland. Before becoming a writer, she worked as a junior doctor in Glasgow and then as a research scientist in Oxford and London. The profound effects of a severe psychiatric illness, during which she was sectioned under the Mental Health Act, led her away from her intended career. Writing played a crucial role in her recovery. Her memoir love lay down beside me and we wept tells part of this story. She currently lives in France.
