Susan Bell trained as a teacher at St Hild’s College, Durham, followed by a Masters Degree in Education from Cardiff University. After teaching for two years, she left to have the first of three sons. As they grew older she resumed teaching, taking a certificate and then a Diploma in Teaching English as a Second Language. With her husband John, Susan moved to Botswana in 1994 and taught English, followed by a move to Zimbabwe where she continued to teach English part-time to slow and second language learners, and researched and wrote stories in her spare time. On returning to the UK, Susan took up the position of Librarian at Durham School for 18 months, leaving in 2003 to concentrate on her writing. In 2007 Susan and John moved to China, staying for three years. During this time she continued to write, and finished a second novel whilst also tutoring English and taking part in a project to improve English in tourist areas, restaurants and information signs in Xi’an. The third year was spent in Nanjing where Susan concentrated on revising and editing her two novels whilst John continued to teach Physics. They returned to Durham in September 2010 and has continued to write and revise her novels. Susan’s husband John sadly died in 2013, just as her first novel, A Similar Devotion, was being prepared for publication.