Susan was born in Grimsby and was mad on Science Fiction and American Literature as a youngster. Her mother was a tailor and her father a professional guitar player. It is from her father that Susan acquired her love of live music! After studying English and American Literature at Warwick University, Susan had a variety of unusual jobs, including working on a mushroom farm, before teaching in England and Africa for ten years. She finally found herself writing children's books and has an impressive list of publications to her name. Susan is an award-winning author, having won the Sheffield Book Award for Beware the Killer Coat 'Walker Books' of which Michael Rosen praised, "A funny book, hilarious!". Humanzee 'Oxford University Press' was commended for the Carnegie Medal and short-listed for the Guardian Children's Fiction Award. Raider was highly commended for the Carnegie Medal. Susan lives in County Durham and is married with three children.

When she is not at a live music gig, or walking along the Northumberland coastal paths, she can be found enjoying a glass of wine in her garden!.