Penny Blackwell grew up in rural West Yorkshire. After university she spent time in several different cities, but eventually returned to settle in the Brontë Country. Penny Blackwell is a pen name for Lisa Firth, who also writes award-winning contemporary romantic comedies as Mary Jayne Baker and uplifting women's fiction as Betty Firth. The Cherrywood Murders is the first novel in a brand-new cosy murder mystery series set in Yorkshire.