Born in Oxford, the only child of a schoolteacher and a circus clown, Christina inherited her parents' best qualities - a carrying voice and a heavy hand with make up. Christina's first novel, Going the Distance, was selected for the 1997 W H Smith Fresh Talent promotion while more recently Love Potions won the Pure Passion Award in February 2008 and then in June 2008 Heaven Sent won a category award at the Melissa Nathan Comedy Romance Awards. In her spare time Christina loves horse racing, football, the sea, being involved with the Motor Neurone Disease Association, animal welfare and drinking Glenfiddich. She still reads voraciously and lists among her favourite authors Leslie Thomas, Charles Dickens, Terry Pratchett, Katie Fforde, Reginald Hill, Jilly Cooper and Dick Francis.

See Chrissi's article on Christina's Books here.

She describes her childhood as "perfect - blissfully happy - living in a prefab in a Berkshire village surrounded by eccentrics and animals", and accepted her family's lifestyle as normal (her father had permanently itchy feet so kept disappearing to 'hit the road' with circuses and fairs, while her mother, "very upper class and aware of the social graces - mingled with the higher echelons and used linen napkins on the prefab table"). Both parents were prolific readers and storytellers, and Christina could read long before she went to school. She grew up in a book-filled house, reading authors as diverse as Enid Blyton, Charles Dickens, J B Priestley and A P Herbert. Christina read absolutely everything - and wrote stories "all the time" - always casting herself as the heroine "in some wild Famous Five-type adventure".

Christina says she was inspired to be a writer by seeing a picture of Enid Blyton in a leafy garden, not looking like she did very much. "Unutterably lazy", she thought that looked ideal. She had her first story published at 15 in Romeo magazine. For four years she was "Romeo-writer Chrissie Clarke" and wrote short stories, 'It Happened to Me' features and "squirm-making" love poems. Inevitably, she became the envy of her classmates, with her very own bank account while they were on 25p a week pocket money. Still at school she had a stint interviewing rock bands for Romeo and Jackie, her first assignment being The Rolling Stones.

After passing her A-levels, Christina had a variety of jobs: book selling, nannying, waitressing, and dancing in a nightclub. She was sacked from most of them for writing in company time, unsuccessfully trying her hand at novel writing before returning to short stories. Her work has been published in many magazines including Woman's Weekly, Woman's Journal, Woman's Realm, People's Friend, Take a Break and Company, she had her own monthly humour column in the Oxford Times for six years, and now broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio Thames Valley.