Catherine Arthur was born in 1965 on the site of the old Epsom Workhouse, which by that time had been transformed into Epsom Hospital.

Her first home was next to the Oxmoor Pond in Ashtead, Surrey. The family left Surrey and moved to East Sussex, where Catherine spent the most of her childhood. 

After school she learned shorthand (long forgotten) and typing at the local college of further education. She worked as a secretary for a publishing house and later for a multinational pharmaceutical company. She later became self-employed, preferring independence to the corporate environment.

Catherine now lives in a farmhouse in central Switzerland. She owns a small language school where she teaches English, and writes whenever she has time.

Hereditas Books was set up in December 2022 to create family history books in order to preserve memories which might otherwise be lost.