Henrietta Hamilton is the pseudonym for Hester Denne Shepherd, who was born in Dundee in 1920 and was educated at St Hugh’s College, Oxford where she earned an honours degree in Modern Languages.

During the Second World War, Hamilton served in the Wrens. Afterwards, she worked in a London bookshop, gaining first-hand experience of antiquarian bookselling – the background of her crime-solving duo, Johnny and Sally Heldar.

During her life, Hamilton enjoyed writing and hill-walking. She died in 1995 in Hastings, East Sussex.