Tessa West

After attending a Quaker school, Tessa West trained to be a teacher, though soon found herself working in prisons rather than in schools. A Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship enabled her to study prisons in Scandinavia. This was followed by a Cropwood Fellowship at Cambridge University. She also spent a term at the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Department at the United Nations in Vienna and later served as an Independent Member of the Parole Board. Since her retirement she has focused on writing, both fiction and non-fiction. While writing her first biography, The Curious Mr Howard, she was awarded an Arthur Welton grant. Lady Sue Ryder of Warsaw: Single-minded philanthropist is her second biography. Tessa writes fiction, non-fiction and poetry.