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Clare Francis grew up in Surrey, also spending time in the Yorkshire Dales and the Isle of Wight – this upbringing helped develop the love of landscape that is such a feature of her fiction. She studied at both the Royal Ballet School and UCL, before setting off on what turned into an “unplanned” five-year career in sailing. She sailed solo across the Atlantic, and took part in several high-profile races, including the Whitbread Round the World Race (with a crew of eleven). After writing three works of non-fiction about her adventures, Come Hell or High Water (1977), Come Wind or Weather (1978), and The Commanding Sea (1981), Clare started writing novels.
Her first novel was the thriller Night Sky (1983), which went to number one in the Sunday Times bestseller list, and spent six weeks in the New York Times top 10. Three more thrillers followed: Red Crystal (1985), Wolf Winter (1987), and Requiem (1991, published in the US as The Killing Winds). In 1993 Clare wrote her first crime novel, Deceit, dramatised for television and starring Francesca Annis (2000). Her books since then include Betrayal (1995), Keep Me Close (1999), A Death Divided (2001), and Homeland (2004), a beautiful work of historical literary fiction set in post-war Somerset. Her new novel is called Unforgotten, a much-anticipated return to crime writing that will be published by Macmillan in February 2008. Her books have been translated into twenty languages and published in over thirty countries.
Clare is an MBE, a Fellow of University College London, and an Honorary Fellow of UMIST. For the past eighteen years she has been committed to the charity Action for ME, of which she is President. She herself has had ME (also known as Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) for many years. Clare lives in London and the Isle of Wight.
For more information see her website at www.clarefrancis.com
Recent books:
Unforgotten (Macmillan: 2008)
Homeland (Pan: 2005)
A Death Divided (Pan: 2002)
Keep Me Close (Pan: 2000)
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