Dorinda Balchin is an author of historical novels for adult readers as well as stories for radio aimed at younger children.

Born in England in 1957 Dorinda Balchin graduated from Warwick University in 1980 and began a career in teaching.  She spent many years teaching Religion and Ethics in schools in the West Midlands and Oxfordshire, where she was one of the early proponents of using the internet to link projects with American schools and was consulted on a number of integrated web-based projects for students. Books and writing have always been a passion for her, but with two children to raise and a demanding career in the field of education Dorinda’s love of literature was mainly confined to reading with little time to explore and develop her writing.

In 2007 Dorinda and her husband took a holiday in India where they spent a week at a guesthouse in the most beautiful of settings beside a lake, at the foot of the western ghat mountains in Tamil Nadu.  Both Dorinda and Peter suffered a ‘mid-life crisis’ moment which found them, a year later, living in India and the owners of their dream property. You can find out more about Dorinda’s life in India here.

This change of lifestyle allowed Dorinda the time to develop some of the writing projects which she had been working on over the years, resulting in the publication of ‘Heronfield‘ at the end of 2012 and ‘The Guardians’ in 2014. Dorinda’s third novel ‘The Cavalier Historian’ was published in 2016.

In 2015 Dorinda and her husband returned to England to be closer to family.

Dorinda’s love of history is clearly reflected in her well researched novels which draw you into another time and place peopled with believable characters with all the strengths and weaknesses which we recognise in ourselves.  When asked about the influences on her writing Dorinda acknowledges that these are eclectic.  “We don’t show just one characteristic in our lives” she says, “we are an amalgam of our thoughts and experiences, our hopes and fears, our education, and the influence that numerous people have had on us, shaping us into the people we are today.  It’s the same with authors and genres which have influenced me – the social and historical writings of Dickens, factual history books, historical novels by a variety of authors, books about philosophy or religion, science fact or fiction.  Each genre has a place on my bookshelves and has helped to shape my ideas and writing style into something which I hope reflects the richness of human life in an accessible and entertaining way.”

Dorinda’s artistic side is indulged in her passion for photography and painting; when it comes to exercise she loves horse-riding, swimming, and long walks. When not participating in her favourite sports, or drawing and painting, Dorinda loves nothing more than losing herself in a good book.