Karen Lowe

Leide ist mein Deutsch heutzutage nicht gut. Also, darf ich etwas in Englisch schreiben?

I was born near Swansea, where my grandad was a police inspector, and moved to beautiful Shropshire, my father's home county, when I was five. I have always had a love of language and studied German, French, and English at University in London, then worked as a secretary in South Kensington, writing in my spare time. Luckily we moved back to Shropshire to bring up our family.

I wrote children's stories when I had time. Some of these were broadcast by the BBC. I could find no children's book on Shropshire folk stories, so I decided to write one: 'Witches & Warriors, Legends from the Shropshire Marches', published by Shropshire Books, and illustrated by Robin Lawrie.

I studied garden design then, and finally completed my first murder mystery, 'Death in the Physic Garden'. The book combines my passion for gardening and crime fiction and features my heroine Fern Green, a garden designer. Readers loved the Shropshire setting and the fabulous flowers. The sequel, 'Death in the Winter Garden' was published in Autumn 2010 and continues Fern's career in Shropshire and develops her relationship with hunky Welsh detective, DI Ross Drummond. I'm pleased to say that both books have 4* and 5* reviews on Amazon in the US and the UK.

I am also a keen crafter. I design templates for the Craft Robo, and enjoy scrapbooking. Recently I have rediscovered a passion for textile art and design. I am interested in patchwork and making quilts, and have just started to make my first cloth doll.