Vicky Straker has a varied background, reading law at university, working for the European Children’s Trust, and teaching refugees to speak English. In 2004 she took a diploma at Leiths School of Food and Wine. Vicky then made handmade chocolates and gave cookery demonstrations before discovering that her great-great grandmother was Dorothy Peel OBE, which inspired her to start working on this book. Vicky lives in Dorset with her husband and two children.