Carol has written for film and art publications in both the UK and the US. She has two sons and lives in Cambridge, MA. She became interested in her great-great-great uncle, Charles Russell Lowell, when his worn saddle bags, rusted sword and spurs turned up after her grandmother’s death in 1983. This is her first book.

From an interview in Writer’s Digest, March 2005:
EDITING PROCESS: "Working with my editor was a great experience. I’ve described it as ‘like dancing with Fred Astaire.’ I felt like I was taken to a whole new level."

INFLUENCES: "I’m a good mimic, and I read as if I were a thief. For this book: Herman Melville, Evan Connell, Patrick O’Brian, Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson."