Gilli Allan

I was born in Kent. Growing up, I loved writing stories which were always lavishly embellished with drawings and doodles. The writing wasn't taken seriously by my parents but the art was encouraged. I went to art school and my first career was as an illustrator in advertising, until l I had my son, Tom.

It was then I reassessed my priorities and started to write again. My first two novels, Just Before Dawn and Desires & Dreams, were accepted and published very quickly. Sadly the publisher went bust. My books didn't get the marketing push or distribution needed to make a mark.

Though I still consider myself a Londoner, we have lived in Gloucestershire for several decades. I'm lucky enough to live at the head of a beautiful valley in the Cotswolds, near Stroud. I love the landscape and it still almost feels as if I'm on holiday. I helped to establish a community shop in our village. I was a school governor and submitted items of local news to the local newspapers.

After leaving the world of advertising I still continued with my art and attended classes for many years. I illustrated Thomas Williams' children's book THE TALE of KING HARALD and since then have supplied archaeological illustrations for his history, VIKING BRITAIN and for the academic book to which he contributed, REPRESENTING BEASTS in MEDIEVAL ENGLAND AND SCANDINAVIA.

Since I was mainstream published I have written 4 more books. But agents and publishers were unwilling to take a chance on my brand of more serious, realistic romantic fiction. With the advent of digital publishing I took matters into my own hands and self-published TORN, LIFE CLASS and FLY OR FALL. These three books were then taken up by Accent Press - now Headline Accent - and republished in 2014 and 2015.

Yet again, I have decided to independently publish my latest novel BURIED TREASURE, which came out in 2019 as an ebook, but it has recently been relaunched in both ebook and paperback format with a new cover. I am currently writing my eighth novel