Melissa Nathan was born and raised in Hertfordshire. A journalist for twelve years, she turned to writing novels full time in 1998 and shortly afterwards Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field and Persuading Annie were published. Melissa discovered she had breast cancer whilst writing her first novel for Random House, The Nanny, which hit the Sunday Times Top Ten in the spring of 2003. She went on to write another top ten bestseller, The Waitress, and finished her fifth novel The Learning Curve in February 2006. Sadly she died two months later, aged 37. A new literary award, The Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance, has been established to honour her. She is survived by her husband, Andrew, and young son, Sam.