Fiona Buckley

Valerie Anand, who also writes as Fiona Buckley, was born in North London but moved to Mitcham in South London with her parents in 1947. Educated at Mitcham County School for Girls, she knew by the age of six that she wanted to be a novelist. At age fifteen, she saw the MGM film Ivanhoe and became enthralled by the middle ages. She knew then that she wanted to write historical novels. Valerie left school in 1955 and was initially employed as a shorthand typist at Odhams Press. She went on to become a journalist and an editor, working first for the Heal’s shop magazine and then the in-house newspaper for Matthew Hall Engineering.

In 1976, her first book, a historical novel about the causes of the Norman Conquest, was published. Valerie combined her writing with her career until 1989, when she became a full-time author. She now has over forty novels published, including the '˜Bridges Over Time’ historical series, written as Valerie Anand, and the Ursula Blanchard Elizabethan espionage series, written as Fiona Buckley.