Frances McNeil lives in Leeds where she was born and grew up. Frances turned to crime for her recently completed fifth novel, set on the outskirts of Bradford, Yorkshire in the 1920s. She is at work on her sixth novel.

She worked in the USA as a secretary - in Washington DC and New York. Frances studied at Ruskin College, Oxford and read English Literature and History at York University.

Starting her writing life in radio, she has written scripts for television and theatre.