She was born in Washington D.C. but she have spent very little time in the USA. This is because, when her French/British father died, her Irish mother went back to live in Ireland with her children. So, from the age of six she grew up in Dublin.

Her grandparents lived on Lower Dodder Road which has the river flowing along one side of it.

When Yvonne was nineteen, she moved to London where she did various jobs including working for a millineer for a brief period (she has always liked hats!). Later she
moved to Cambridge where she trained to be a carpenter and joiner, before going to Clare College to study architecture. She worked as an architect for
several years, designing mainly sheltered housing and school buildings, before finally taking up writing.

She also paints a little and plants trees. She is creating a small woodland of native trees in Cambridgeshire where she lives. You can see its progress on her website.

Biography provided by the author, September 2006.