Margaret Skea grew up in Ulster at the height of the 'Troubles', but now lives with her husband in the Scottish Borders.

Margaret is an Hawthornden Fellow (2016), an accomplished speaker and workshop presenter and an award winning novelist and short story writer.

Credits for novels include Beryl Bainbridge Best First Time Author 2014 (Turn of the Tide) and Longlist Historical Novel Society New Novel Award 2016 (A House Divided).

Short story credits include, Overall Winner Neil Gunn 2011, Chrysalis Prize 2010, and Winchester Short Story Prize 2009. Third in Rubery Book Award Short Story 2013, a finalist in the Historical Novel Society Short Story Competition 2012, (longlisted in 2014), shortlisted in the Mslexia Short Story Competition 2012 the Matthew Pritchard Award, the Fish Short Story and Fish One Page Prize, she has been published in a range of magazines and anthologies in Britain and the USA.