Born in Portsmouth, Patricia Ann Granger studied modern languages, French and German at the University of London before working for the Foreign Office and receiving postings to British embassies across the world, including in Munich, Lusaka, Vienna, Zagreb and Belgrade. She met her husband John Hulme at the British Embassy in Prague, and later settled with her family in Bicester, Oxfordshire, where she began writing. In 1979 her first novel, a historical romance titled A POOR RELATION, was published under the name Ann Hulme. In 1991, Headline published her first crime novel as Ann Granger, SAY IT WITH POISON. (From Blake Friedmann obituary)