Livia Huntingdon-Jones works within the demanding environment of a City law firm. She describes her writing as an essential escape and antidote to the pressures and jargon of her corporate legal career, a pursuit her parents view with some exasperation. Her background includes time at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, from which she was expelled, before achieving excellent grades at a state sixth form college and going on to study Law at Oxford. This perhaps informs the blend of Establishment settings and rebellious undercurrents often found in her work. Huntingdon-Jones writes complex, atmospheric thrillers, frequently set within the venerable, yet potentially treacherous, confines of ancient universities like Oxford and Cambridge. Her plots often focus on hidden histories, secret societies, and the dark undersides of respectable institutions, exploring themes of power, conspiracy, and the collision between intellectual life and brutal realities. Her writing process reflects a need for control amidst a demanding schedule. She works almost exclusively in the stolen hours of late night or pre-dawn, requiring a meticulously ordered desk – a stark contrast, she notes, to the chaos of her day job. While eschewing charming eccentricities like lucky mugs or feline companions as “inefficient,” she sometimes reverts to structuring plots on yellow legal pads, a habit possibly transferred from her professional life.