Lynne Barrett-Lee Biography
Lynne Barrett-Lee was born in London and became a fulltime writer shortly after moving to Cardiff in 1994. She is the author of ten novels, including her acclaimed debut, Julia Gets a Life, and Barefoot in the Dark, which was shortlisted for the 2007 Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance. Her novels have been translated into several languages and she has also contributed two titles (one ghostwritten for television presenter Fiona Phillips) to the UK’s Quick Reads Campaign, which provides easy-to-read books for adult emergent readers.
Most recently, Lynne has returned to her early writing roots, and been penning psychological thrillers. Her first, Can You See Me?, was published in January 2020, and her second, False Hope, is to be published in January 2021, both under her ‘crime’ pen-name, Lynne Lee.
Lynne’s ghostwriting career began in 2007, when she was approached by a former patient of her Oncologist husband, to ask if she would help her write the story of her amazing life. The result was the 2009 title Never Say Die. Since then, Lynne has collaborated on a wide range of titles. As well as penning standalone memoirs as diverse as the antics of the world’s biggest dog, Giant George, and the global bestseller,The Girl With No Name, she also ghosts a series for a major UK publisher, the first seventeen titles of which have all been Sunday Times bestsellers. Her most recent ghostwriting project was Fabulous Finn, the story of perhaps Britain’s most celebrated and famous police dog, and now recipient of the PDSA Gold Medal.
When not busy writing books, which takes up almost all of her time, Lynne writes a weekly column for the Western Mail Newspaper’s Saturday Magazine, and teaches a novel writing course once a year for Cardiff University.
How I Found the Agency
I first came across Andrew's name following some email correspondence with the biographer and journalist Valerie Grove, who’d directed me to the Biographers' Club as a possible start-point in my hunt for a good non-fiction agent. I’d ghosted my first non-fiction memoir and was entering uncharted waters, so it was reassuring to see how a search for the name ‘Andrew Lownie’ immediately brought up two then bestselling titles: Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet and Damaged, by Cathy Glass. Was fate trying to tell me something? I thought so. And fate was right. Within a matter of weeks he’d secured my first ever non-fiction publishing deal. And has been doing much the same, pretty regularly, ever since. He’s good, he is.
Author Details:
- Author's website: http://www.lynnebarrett-lee.com
