Madeleine Piper

I spent the first five years of my life in India before moving to the UK. I am Anglo-French, my husband is Chinese-Borneo Dusun and my children are mixed race.

I first came to Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, in 1978 and settled here to raise my children in 1990.

My world has always been a melting pot, a reality I seldom see truly reflected in literature. The remarkable inter-connectedness of nations and cultures at the turn of the last century is also rarely depicted as it is in my novel, The First Cold Blossom.

I studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University before retraining as a doctor and have spent my working life between Malaysian Borneo and the UK. I now focus on writing.