Lucy Gannon is the daughter of a British soldier. Her mother died when she was seven and by the age of eleven she had attended nine schools. Classed as "educationally subnormal", she left school as soon as she could and moved around the world for a few years. When she was nearly 40 -- twice married, broke and working in a care home -- she heard about a playwriting competition, the Richard Burton Drama Award, funded by his widow, Sally. With no hope of winning it, but daydreaming about the £2,000 prize money, she started her first script, a theatre play called Keeping Tom Nice. She won first prize and went on to become one of Britain's most prolific and successful scriptwriters (Soldier, Soldier, Peak Practice, Bramwell, and many other mini-series, films, theatre plays and radio dramas). She has won numerous awards across theatre, radio and television, including the Prix Europa for her first TV film A Small Dance, a Bafta Cymru for Dad and an RTS writers' award for The Best of Men. In 1997 she was awarded an MBE for services to television drama. She now lives and writes in West Wales.