Vanessa Croft was born in Australia to English migrants and began writing at nine while living in Papua New Guinea. She studied Arts, led her university’s Creative Writing Club, and built a career in research and communications while nurturing her passion for historical fiction. 

An armchair historian drawn to the Victorian and early Edwardian eras, she now lives in a 19th-century farmhouse in Canterbury with her adventurer husband, two teenagers, and more books than shelves. Her writing is inspired by travel, flyfishing, and the natural world - echoes of her own voyaging ancestors.

If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why?

James Augustus Grant, Scottish explorer who accompanied John Hanning Speke in the 1860's expedition to locate the source of the Nile. Inspiration for my character John Holt, and seemingly one of the most decent, principled and upstanding fellows in world exploration (and -did I mention? - handsome. Tall and handsome)