Lesley won a bursary to study for a postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism, then spent over a decade as a national news reporter covering everything from High Court crime to Westminster scandals.

She now works as a political writer and press adviser and is fascinated by the blurring of boundaries between fiction and nonfiction. Her first novel, Common Threads, was awarded a distinction on the MA in creative writing at Bath Spa and her next project is a work of speculative fiction exploring how storytelling can create a social movement, changing the way we act and think about climate change.