ANNE MORBEY grew up in East Africa and the Middle East, the majority of her education being by correspondence course. She was a Wren [Women's Royal Naval Service] for a short time on her return to the UK in the mid-1960s, and held a variety of jobs, mainly involving a keyboard. She met Neil [a police officer at the time] when she became a Special Constable in North London in 1976. After their marriage the following year, Anne opened a typing service; her clients included writers living overseas, students from all over the UK, and people who could neither read nor write. They moved to rural France in 1989.

She has been a photographer, teacher, artist - and writes fiction under the pen name Emma Carlton. As a former member of Mensa, Anne wrote numerous articles about living in France for one of their Special Interest Group newsletters. She lives in the same house that she and Neil bought in 2000 on the outskirts of a village in France.