SJI (Susi) Holliday

SJI Holliday grew up in Haddington, East Lothian. She works as a Pharmaceutical Statistician, and as a life-long bookworm has always dreamt of becoming a novelist. She has several crime and horror short stories published in anthologies and was shortlisted for the inaugural CWA Margery Allingham Prize. After travelling the world, she has now settled in London with her husband. Her debut novel, Black Wood, was inspired by a disturbing incident from her childhood. You can find out more at www.sjiholliday.com.

Holliday studied Microbiology and Statistics at various Scottish universities and for the last 15 years she has worked as a statistician, analysing data from clinical trials (for illnesses such as gastrointestinal disease, Parkinson’s, oncology and asthma). She is one of four children, and grew up in a small town near Edinburgh where she worked in the family businesses (newsagent and pub) from a young age—which sounds a bit like child labour, if you think about it. After lots of travelling around the world and living in lots of different places, she is back in London with her husband and a teetering pile of books. She likes exploring, 80s/90s pop, grunge and rock… and cheese. She really likes cheese.

Awards

BLACK WOOD is nominated for 3 CWA daggers:

The John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger

The Goldsboro Gold Dagger

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger