Noreen Riols was born in Malta of English parents and lives with her French husband in a seventeenth-century house in a village near Versailles. After the war, she joined the BBC, where she met her husband, a journalist with the World Service. She is the author of eleven books, published in Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Norway, and the US. She has written numerous newspaper and magazine articles and for several years contributed features from Paris to Woman’s Hour. She is an experienced public speaker with an impressive list of credits to her name and has also broadcast on radio and television programmes across the world. She was awarded the Medaille des Volontaires de la Résistance and on July 14th, 2014, France’s National Day, she was awarded a medal making her a Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest honour. Her 10th book, The Secret Ministry of Ag. and Fish, was published in 2013 to great acclaim. Her 11th book, Autumn Sonata, has been published as an e-book.