Donna Hunt

Marina Oliver was born in 1934. She graduated from Keele University in Politics and Economics. Married to Chris, they had four grown-up children: Jackie, Debbie, Cindy and Simon, and seven grandchildren. She now splits her time between an old manor house built in 1720, which at one time belonged to Princess Diana's Spencer family in the rural Shropshire, and her beloved Madeira.

Published since 1974, Marina Oliver has written more than fifty novels under her name and her pseudonyms; Sally James, Donna Hunt, Bridget Thorn, Vesta Hathaway, Livvy West and Laura Hart, plus half a dozen non-fiction books. She was elected the sixteenth Chairman (1992-1993) of the Romantic Novelists' Association, edited its Newsletter for 3 years, and now has been elected a Vice-President and ran the R.N.A. New Writer's Scheme. She reads for and judges short story competitions, reviews historical novels, and has done appraisals for (among others) a prestigious Regional Arts board.