Vivien Alcock was born September 23, 1924, in Worthing, England, a Sussex seaside town, where she lived until her family moved to Wiltshire ten years later. She attended the Oxford School of Art which led to her employment as a commercial artist in London.

She also has worked as an ambulance driver, a secretary in a beauty salon, and a clerk in an antique shop. She currently is a full-time writer, married to author Leon Garfield.

Although The Haunting of Cassie Palmer is about the use of psychic powers, Alcock has never consulted a medium or been to a seance. The ideas for her books grew from stories that she used to share with her daughter and neighborhood children. These stories culminated in several novels, published when Alcock was in her fifties. Her books are popular in England, and television serials have been made out of...