Hazel Holt was born in Birmingham in 1928 and was educated at King Edward VI High School for Girls (Blakeneys in "Delay of Execution"). She went on to Cambridge (Newnham) where she met her husband Geoffrey Holt (they celebrated their Golden Wedding in 2002). She worked for 27 years in the Editorial Department of the International African Institute in London with her friend the novelist Barbara Pym whose Literary Executor she later became. Barbara Pym's "Excellent Women" was the inspiration ( much later ) for Sheila Malory.

She later worked at the Theatre Museum, in its early days, and was a reviewer and feature writer for "Stage and Television Today". She now lives on the edge of Exmoor, near Minehead (Taviscombe) with her husband and her cat.

After writing a biography of Barbara Pym ("A Lot to Ask") she wrote her first work of fiction at the age of 60 and has written one a year ever since. Nevertheless, she knows that however hard she tries she will never catch up with the prodigious output of her son the writer Tom Holt.

Her favourite detective writers are Dorothy L.Sayers (of course) and Josephine Tey.

Her life is divided between writing, cooking and trying to keep up with her Siamese cat Flip (Foss).