Jill Marshall, 42, was born in Manchester. She was director of training and development at telecommunications group NTL before moving to Auckland, New Zealand, to write children's books. She lives with her 11-year-old daughter Katie. Her latest book "The Perfect Spylet" is published on Thursday, World Book Day.
I've always wanted to write for children. When I was at school I talked to the careers adviser about writing children's books and, to her great credit, she took me seriously. But life took over and all I wrote were history essays at Cambridge and then when I got a job I stopped writing altogether.
