Sally Worboyes was born and grew up in Stepney with four brothers and a sister, and she brings some of her own family background to her East End sagas. She now lives in Norfolk with her husband, with whom she has three grown-up children. She has written several plays which have been broadcast on Anglia Television and Radio Four. She also adapted her own play and novel, WILD HOPS, as a musical, The Hop Pickers.