Phyllida Shrimpton is a full-time mother of a teenage daughter and currently lives inEssex with her husband, their rescued Newfoundland and small badly behaved JackRussell.

She achieved a postgraduate degree in HumanResource Management, but soon jumped ship to work with teenagers, includingstudents with Asperger's syndrome, on an Essex-based agricultural college farmbefore eventually moving to live temporarily in the Netherlands. She is also anartist. Sunflowers in February isher first novel.