Raised in London during the 1950s, Hoffman has vivid memories of her own childhood, during which she claims she did not give much thought to "all those serious grown-up things" that would later appear in her work. In an essay for Something about the Author Autobiography Series (SAAS), she characterized her youth as "the years which made me the person I am now. Whenever I write, I am in touch with the five year old or seven year old or nine year old who is still inside me." Gaining an aptitude for writing and languages and a love of English literature during her school years, Hoffman found herself unsure of her future occupation after graduating from Cambridge University. Working as a tutor and teacher of English, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon, she soon settled in to write a full-length novel about a young boy and girl living in Italy who...