Robin Hobb is one of the world’s finest writers of epic fiction. She was born in California in 1952 but raised in Alaska, where she learned how to raise a wolf cub, to skin a moose and to survive in the wilderness.

When she married a fisherman who fished herring and the Kodiak salmon-run for half the year, these skills would stand her in good stead.

She raised her family, ran a smallholding, delivered post to her remote community, all at the same time as writing stories and novels.

She succeeded on all fronts, raising four children and becoming an internationally best-selling writer. She lives in Tacoma, Washington State.