Her first novel, The Earth Hums in B Flat (Canongate, 2009), works on one level as a detective story, while on another dealing with the problems of growing up in a small Welsh village in the 1950s, and more generally with the influence of the past on the present.
After leaving the Welsh-medium secondary school Ysgol Ardudwy in Harlech, she graduated in history and English from Cardiff University and then qualified as a chartered librarian, working as such until her retirement.
"[2] Encouragement to take up novel-writing in retirement came from a Masters' Course at Manchester Metropolitan University, which "made me focus on my own writing" rather than "trying to imitate other writers whose books I admired.
"[3] The 11-year-old protagonist Gwenni of The Earth Hums in B Flat, Strachan's first book, "is not based on a real person....
It was read as the BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime in April 2009, while being chosen for Waterstones' New Voices and winning an Amazon Rising Star award the same spring.