[2] Born and brought up in Derbyshire, Hegarty was mostly educated in convent schools[3] before reading English at Newcastle University.
She claims "After a long diet of criminal law, including dangerous dogs, rape, mayhem and much, much murder, the indigestion of pity and fury provoked me to write.
She also writes psychological thrillers under the name of Frances Hegarty, among them, The Playroom, Half Light and Let's Dance, which was published in 1995.
Juliet Stevenson played Helen West in Trial by Fire (1999) and Amanda Burton later took on the role in a successful British television series in 2002.
[citation needed] Fyfield hosted the BBC Radio 4 programme Tales from the Stave until 2018.