Lesley Thomson is a British author and creative writing tutor at West Dean College. Her novel, A Kind of Vanishing, won the People's Book Prize in 2010. Many of her books feature the crime-fighting duo Stella Darnell and Jack Harmon.
Lesley Thomson was born in 1958 and grew up in London. She went to Holland Park Comprehensive and the Universities of Brighton and Sussex.
"When I was a teenager, I worked in Hammersmith Library shelving books. I dreamt that one day my novels would be in a library," Thomson says.
She debuted with the crime novel Seven Miles to Sydney in 1987. But she did not become famous until 20 years later with the publication of the book A Kind of Vanishing. This standalone crime fiction is based on the true story of a child who went missing at the deserted Tide Mills Village in Sussex in 1968.
The novel came out in 2007, but it was later republished with a blessing from Ian Rankin and an afterword by the author in 2011, soon after winning the 2010 Best Fiction Book of the Year.
She cemented her success with Detective's Daughter Series (2013–2021). The initial book received the prestigious eBook of the Year Award from Sainsbury's eBooks. Additionally, in 2013, it was widely regarded as the most recommended novel of the year.
Lesley Thomson lives in Lewes with her partner.
Photo credit: lesleythomson.co.uk
