Ali Lewis was born in rural North Yorkshire in 1976, the second of three children.
Being cast as Rose Herriot in the final series of All Creatures Great and Small opened the door to a new world.
After graduating from university, she went into a career in journalism, then in 2002 she left to travel the world. It was in Australia, working on an outback cattle station, that she found the inspiration for her first novel, Everybody Jam. Since her return, Ali worked as a features writer and now has moved on to work in public relations.