Carolyn O’Brien was born in Manchester. She studied English at Cambridge University before qualifying as a solicitor. She now works part-time as a consultant lawyer as well as writing historical fiction. Her writing has a strong sense of the north-west of England and its radical past, as illustrated by her first novel, THE SONG OF PETERLOO which was published to coincide with the bicentenary of the Peterloo Massacre. Her second novel is ROSE & RENZO, to be published in May 2026, a 1930s love story set in the ‘Little Italy’ district of Manchester against the backdrop of rising fascism.

Carolyn lives near Manchester with her family.