Tanith Lee was born in 1947 and began writing at age nine. She published a number of short stories and children's novels before publishing her first adult novel The Birthgrave in 1975 through DAW. Although mainly a fantasy author, she also experiments occasionally with dark and apocalyptic science fiction.

I would have to say that of the thousands of books by hundreds of authors I have read, Tanith Lee's novels and stories are my favourites. Out of the thirty something titles I've read by her, I have only disliked two, and there are a number of her books that I have read several times.

Tanith Lee is simply brilliant, her work is creative, rich, dark and bloody, not for the squeemish. But if you enjoy the sort of novel that takes you away to another place, another state of mind, then she is the one to read, there is no better.

If you have never encountered her work, then I suggest you try to. I highly recommend The Birthgrave, the Tales from the Flat Earth series and the Secret Books of Paradys series to begin with.