Sam grew up in
Hampshire and after an administrative career, returned to full-time education to study Journalism. She graduated in 1997 with a BA (Hons) from Southampton Solent University and
subsequently worked as a publications officer for a regional charity.
In 2000, she
moved to Somerset with her husband, a retired Naval Commander, and worked as a part-time sub-editor for a county newspaper. In September 2013 she completed a postgraduate course in
Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Her debut novel, Black to White, was inspired by the loss of her husband to
cancer in 2008. 'It was a day for being outdoors and the thought of working in the garden lifted my spirits. There was something therapeutic about
connecting with the life that springs from the soil - watching a seed grow into a plant that blooms, withers and decays was, to me, the cycle of all living things.'
The story is set in the pretty, rural hamlet where they lived. After her bereavement, Sam found comfort in the large garden which she
and her husband took eight years to create. Its tranquility and beauty eventually captured in her writing, and in the slide show above.