"I wrote my first story at the age of nine (an embarrassingly trite thing to do)," notes Tanith Lee in Something about the Author. But as she indicates in an interview with Contemporary Authors, "I began to write, and continue to write, out of the sheer compulsion to fantasize. I can claim no noble motives, no aspirations ... I just want to write, can't stop, don't want to stop, and hope I never shall."

Lee, the prolific and highly original creator of works of fiction that combine science fiction, humor, a dark imagination, and the power of the erotic, was born in London, England. She attended school in London as well, where she began to develop her tastes in art and literature. In discussing factors that have molded her work, Lee says in Contemporary Authors that "I think I can say that I've been influenced by everything I've read...