Hilary Lepine is a former teacher, who also worked in mental health. Before finally retiring at seventy, Hilary was co-director of a heating and plumbing business for twenty years. Under the pen name Lottie Thorn, she has written and published three children's books, following the fortunes of her church mouse "Mabel".
Hilary has attended numerous writing courses, starting with Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education in 2007. Since 2019, Hilary has run a writing group with a focus on producing very short stories, one of which won first prize at a local competition. She is an alumnus of the National Writing Centre and has contributed to a memoir anthology from that institution.
Always an avid reader of historical novels, Hilary was nevertheless surprised to find that a writing course exercise developed over time into the full-length historical novel.
Hilary lives 'almost on' the beach in Suffolk, on the east coast, where she walks daily with her dog.
