Isabella Strachan

ISABELLA STRACHAN was born and brought up in Welwyn Garden City, the daughter of writer Andrew Wood, who lost his livelihood when Isabella was a child. She had to leave grammar school at 16 and train at the local secretarial school. At 20 she joined the London office of Encyclopaedia Britannica (now closed) as a junior secretary, later being allowed to move to the secretarial side, where she was a staff writer and editorial assistant for 'Children's Britannica' and 'Britannica Book of the Year'. Later she worked on 'Good Housekeeping' magazine as deputy chief sub-editor, to the benefit of her lifestyle.

She now lives in Southampton, where she spent her brief but happy marriage with the Scotsman Raymond Strachan, and is a published writer in her own right.

'Emma the Twice-crowned Queen - England in the Viking Age'. Paperback, 192 pp, illustrated. From the distinguished publisher Peter Owen (2004). Available online and through bookshops (not on shelves). Original price 13.95.

Recently there has been a revival of interest in Emma, the queen consort who was in turn Norman, Saxon and Danish. This is her first full biography. Easily read and sticking to facts, it was well reviewed by 'The Times' of London and American and French journals. Illustrations include the frontispiece of the book about her own life that Emma commissioned.