Lorna Concanen Lewis was born in June 1900 in Surbiton, Surrey.  She studied at University College, London, then worked in girls’ clubs, as a juvenile welfare officer and on the staff of Time and Tide.  She was a close friend of E. M. Delafield, appearing as ‘Miss Lewis’ in The Diary of a Provincial Lady  and as ‘Miss L.’ in Virginia Woolf’s diary.
    She did various war work – driving a refugee van in France in 1940 and a mobile canteen in London in the Blitz, was a machine operator in a munitions factory and a transport driver in the Westminster ARP service. 
     She was a reviewer of children’s books for Time and Tide before starting to write her own.  As well as two novels for older children based on her wartime experiences (Tea and Hot Bombs, 1943 and Feud in the Factory, 1944) she wrote biographies for young readers, girls’ career stories, animal stories for younger children and various mystery books for girls.  She died aged only 62 in November 1962.