Emma Darwin was born in London, and grew up partly in Manhattan and then in Brussels. After studying Drama at university she had various jobs, including driving a sandwich van and selling musical instruments, before her first novel The Mathematics of Love (Headline Review/William Morrow) was published. It is possibly the only novel ever shortlisted for both the Commonwealth Writers Best First Book and the Romantic Novelists Association Novel of the Year, and it was followed by her Sunday Times bestselling second novel, A Secret Alchemy. In her latest book, This is Not a Book About Charles Darwin: a writer’s journey through my family (Holland House Books), she tells the story of the disastrous three years she spent trying to write fiction about her embarrassingly famous family: a project which nearly killed her. Her long-established blog This Itch of Writing gave rise to the commission for Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction (John Murray Learning); she also teaches writing, and mentors writers of both fiction and non-fiction. Emma lives in London.