Anne Zouroudi

Anne Zouroudi was born in Lincolnshire in 1959 and grew up in England's industrial north, in the steel city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire. After a number of years in a lucrative career - which included time working on Wall Street, and in Denver, Co - she gave up an excellent job to live in the Greek islands. She married a Greek, and her son was born on the island of Rhodes. "The truth is," she says, "I was a Shirley Valentine." Anne's writer's eye records in fascinating detail the minutiae of the lives of the Greek people, and her mould-breaking crime novels bring Greece's timeless landscapes vividly to life. She regards her work as a labour of love. "Greece," she says, "is my spiritual home, the land that stole my heart and shows no sign of ever returning it." Her first novel, The Messenger of Athens, was nominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize for Sparkling New Fiction, and ITV3's Crime Thriller Awards 2008. Anne now lives in middle England, in the beautiful Peak District National Park. "It's pretty," she says. "But Greece still calls my name. At every opportunity, I'm there."