Sarah Singleton was born in rural Northamptonshire and holds an honours degree in English Literature and Language from the University of Nottingham. She travelled in Europe, India and Nepal, and worked variously with horses, in a chocolate shop, as a factory operative, and a chambermaid in Germany, before becoming a journalist.
In 1993 she married Brian Hoare, and they have two young daughters. Now, she lives in Chippenham, "in beautiful mystic Wiltshire," and works as a senior reporter for the Wiltshire Gazette & Herald, campaigns with a local human rights group, and is learning to play violin.
Picture by Martin Phelps