Catriona was born in South Queensferry, near Edinburgh, in 1965. She claims to have daydreamed her way through Queensferry Primary and High schools but this is hard to believe as she went on to attain an MA in English Language and Linguistics at Edinburgh University and later followed this up with a PhD in Semantics. Catriona says that her thesis on a possible worlds' approach to references to non existent objects was as useful as it sounds.

      Catriona discovered after nine years of preparation that a life in academia was not for her and without a deal, offer, agent or publication apart from a letter to The Bunty, she resigned her job and took up tutoring for the Open University and started to write her first novel. Catriona has now published her fifth successful novel, Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains. Dandy Gilver, heroine of Catriona's novels, has not had a case in the Highlands as yet, but we anticipate a visit to the Clan Macpherson Museum as part of a future investigation.