About the author

Hello! I’m Marianne Pickles, author of science fiction mysteries set in the near future.

To tell you a little about myself, I grew up in the northeast of Scotland, near Aberdeen, where many people worked on offshore oil rigs in the North Sea (so working on platforms above the waves was normal to me). These days, I live with my partner, David, in the Fens – a low-lying region of England where flooding is a real issue, even today. (Water, water everywhere…)

My degrees are in English Literature and Classics, and in Language Testing, which helps to show how I’ve spent my personal and professional life obsessed with words and language. I was an English teacher in Spain many years ago, and since 2014, I’ve worked for the University of Cambridge designing and creating English language exams.

I’ve always been a huge fan of science fiction and I enjoy it across all media. My favourite TV show of all time is Babylon 5 – the five-season story arc and the relationships between the characters were works of art. In video games, I love the Mass Effect series. And my favourite author is Sir Terry Pratchett, whose Long Earth series, co-written with Stephen Baxter, I’d highly recommend.