Ellen Barksdale was born in the English seaside resort of Brighton. Her first experience of crime fiction was with the Maigret novels by Georges Simenon (her mother is Belgian by birth). After years of reading crime fiction, she recently decided to take up writing herself. "Tea? Coffee? Murder!” is her first mystery series. Ellen Barksdale lives near Swansea with her partner Ian and their three dogs Billy, Bobby and Libby.