Helen Dunmore FRSL (12 December 1952 – 5 June 2017[1]) was a British poet, novelist, and short story and children's writer.

[2] Her best known works include the novels Zennor in Darkness, A Spell of Winter and The Siege, and her last book of poetry Inside the Wave.

She won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction, the National Poetry Competition, and posthumously the Costa Book Award.

She studied English at the University of York, and lived in Finland for two years (1973–75) and worked as a teacher.

In March 2017, she published her last novel, Birdcage Walk, as well as an article about mortality for The Guardian written after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.