Freya Berry always loved stories, but it took several years as a journalist to realise she loves the kind of truth that lies in fiction, not reality. (Or, to put it another way, making stuff up is more fun.)

Her first novel The Dictator's Wife, a high-stakes exploration of power, glamour and complicity, was shortlisted for the Authors' Club First Novel Award, a pick for the BBC's flagship book show Between The Covers, and The New European's 2022 novel of the year.

In her second novel, The Birdcage Library, an adventuress discovers an old book containing clues about the disappearance of a woman who vanished 50 years before. Set between a Scottish castle in the 1930s and an exotic animal emporium in Gilded Age New York, it's a twisting Gothic tale of obsession, murder and taxidermy.

Freya lives in London and graduated with a double starred first in English from Cambridge, though nobody in real life knows what this actually is.