Born in the English Midlands, Michelle Lawson now divides her time between Devon, the French Pyrenees and less-familiar corners of Central-Eastern Europe such as Western Ukraine. Her interest in how place can be a portal to understanding ourselves permeates all of her work, both fiction and non-fiction.
Michelle’s fiction career has been inspired by her observations of people and place. Themes of manipulation and vulnerability, and the difficulty of separating a dream from reality, inspired her debut novel, The Wicked Game, set in the intriguing city of Kathmandu.
Michelle’s interest in migration, the search for a new life abroad and the gaps left by family secrets have inspired her non-fiction writing. An academic study of British incomers in the French Pyrenees became a stepping stone to a trade publication travel narrative: A House at the End of the Track.
When Michelle isn’t writing, she could be teaching Applied Linguistics, or halfway up a Pyrenean mountain, or even riding a tram in Central Europe.