Biography     I grew up in the New Forest. As a child I wrote elaborate fantasy stories that I never showed to anyone. But around age 12 I stopped writing, and didn't start again till my mid-twenties. I went to Oxford to study music, at St. Hilda's College. In my twenties I tried all sorts of things - music therapy, play-leading with children with disabilities, work in a toy shop, teaching. I also got married - and divorced. Finally I found work I really enjoyed, as a social worker: I qualified at Leicester University, and worked in psychiatry and then in child protection. It's a reviled profession but I found it fascinating: though, intriguingly, in my writing social workers are more likely to be villains than heroes. Around this time I met Mick, who is now my husband - and I started writing again. I became a full-time(ish) writer after our younger daughter was born. These are my books so far: Miscarriage (Optima 1987) A self-help book for women. Aristotle Sludge (Hippo 1991) A story for children. I'd had a horrible teaching experience with a rather wild primary class. In the story a delinquent dinosaur is hatched on the nature table and takes over the school - which is much how it had felt in my classroom. Pleasure: the truth about female sexuality (HarperCollins 1993) I wanted to find out what women's love lives are really like. Researching the book was fascinating, as fifty women aged from fifteen to eighty talked to me amazingly openly about their love lives. My favourite review was from Kate Saunders in Cosmopolitan: "Leroy brilliantly explores and uncovers perhaps the world's best-kept secret". Some Girls Do: why women do and don't make the first move (HarperCollins 1997) A look at the dating game today - why women don't ask men out, and why they should. A review in the Independent said, "Don't go clubbing without it." The idea came from the interviews I did for Pleasure - because some of the most confident women I met told me they'd never ask a man out. I'd love to think my book has encouraged more women to make a move. My non-fiction has been published in Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew and German. In 1995 and 1996 I wrote an agony aunt column for Options magazine. I've also written for the Observer, Prima and the Mail on Sunday, and I'm often asked for quotes for magazine articles on love, sex and relationships. I've appeared on Woman's Hour, One in Five Million, Kilroy, The Time The Place, 5 Live, Steve Wright, Debbie Thrower, the series "Women Talk Sex" on the Living Channel, programmes on RTE and Radio 5, and many local radio shows. I particularly enjoy meeting readers face to face at bookshop events and women's book groups. My first novel, Trust (HarperCollins), was published in 1999, and Alysson's Shoes (Flamingo) in 2002. Postcards From Berlin was published in 2003 by Little, Brown and Company, New York, who will also publish my latest novel, The River House, in June 2005.