Susan Gates was born in Grimsby. As a child, she loved science fiction and detective stories, and went on to study American literature at Warwick. She has been a teacher, including one in Malawi, Africa.In 1995, her teenage book, Raider, was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal (pub OUP). She has twice won the Sheffield Award with books for younger readers published by Scholastic. She now lives in County Durham.