[4] Harris was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and spent her early childhood there before her parents moved in 1965 to Glasgow, Scotland.
[5] At the end of the course, in order to obtain an Equity card from the actor's union, she formed a comedy trio called the Gumdrops, which was unsuccessful.
[6] After a few years of different jobs, such as a dishwasher, a waitress, a chambermaid and an English language teacher, began writing short stories while confined to her bed in Portugal with flu.
[5] She lists her literary influences as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Muriel Spark, Henry James, Robert Louis Stevenson, Anne Tyler and Carol Shields.
[11][12][13] The Sunday Express wrote: "Pitches you headfirst into this outstanding, heartbreaking story of siblings, slavery and the savagery of the colonial past.
"[14] A review in The Irish Times wrote "Through masterful detail, Harris shows the dehumanisation of the brothers and their fellow slaves .