Helen Cross is an English author. She was raised in East Yorkshire

East Yorkshire

East Yorkshire could be:*East Yorkshire Motor Services*An alternative name for the East Riding of Yorkshire*East Yorkshire , a former district of Humberside*East Yorkshire...

 and educated at the University of East Anglia

University of East Anglia

The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...

.

Cross's first novel, My Summer of Love, was published in 2001 and was the winner of a Betty Trask Award

Betty Trask Award

The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are for first novels written by authors under the age of 35, who reside in a current or former Commonwealth nation. The awards were established in 1984 by the Society of Authors, at the bequest of the late Betty Trask, a reclusive author of over thirty romance novels...

 in 2002. It was made into an acclaimed film

My Summer of Love

My Summer of Love is a 2004 British drama film directed by Pawel Pawlikowski and co-written by Pawel Pawlikowski and Michael Wynne. Based on the novel of the same name by Helen Cross, the film explores the relationship between two young women from different classes and backgrounds...

 directed by Paweł Pawlikowski and starring Emily Blunt

Emily Blunt

Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award...

 and Nathalie Press. She also wrote The Secrets She Keeps, published in 2005. These two books are set in Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

. Her third and latest novel, Spilt Milk, Black Coffee, was published in 2009..

Helen Cross lives in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

with her husband Andy, and her two daughters, Kendra and Cleo.
She tutors at the Arvon centre.