Grace Monroe

Grace Monroe is the pseudonym of Maria Thomson and Linda Watson-Brown. Maria Thomson was born in Edinburgh, and graduated with a law degree in her early 20s. A year after qualifying, Maria was made a partner in an Edinburgh law firm.  Maria met her husband-to-be, Gordon, already a partner in a rival firm.  The couple now have four children and live in Kingussie, in the Scottish Highlands.  Maria stopped practising law some years ago and since then has worked as a hypnotherapist, stage hypnotist and fertility counsellor amongst many things.  A completely new start in the Scottish Highlands has afforded Maria the chance to start the next chapter in her life – as a writer. After ten years as a Politics lecturer in Scottish universities, Linda Watson-Brown began a journalistic career as a columnist at The Scotsman.  She went on to write on a regular basis for the Daily Mail, Big Issue, Daily Record, Sunday Herald and Independent amongst others, and also developed a career as a ghost-writer. Her first ghost-written book, The Step Child, was published in 2006 and quickly became a Sunday Times best-seller.  She is now working on a screenplay of the book, as well as continuing with ghost-writing and fiction. She and her family live in the North-East of Scotland. In 2003, Maria and Linda met and became firm friends. They soon realised that they should put their talents and experiences together and write as a team.