Author Bio
• Birth—February 2, 1970
• Where—Winchester, England, UK
• Education—Exeter University
• Currently—lives in London and Dummer Hampshire, Englad
Santa Montefiore is a British author, born in Winchester, England. Her parents are Charles Palmer-Tomkinson, formerly High Sheriff of Hampshire, and Patricia Palmer-Tomkinson (nee Dawson), of Anglo-Argentine background.
The family is a substantial land-owner in Leicestershire. Santa Montefiore said that growing up on the family farm gave her an "idyllic Swallows and Amazons childhood." She also describes her upbringing as "sheltered Sloaney."
Her father and other members of her family represented Great Britain in skiing at Olympic level. Her sister, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, is well known as an "It girl" and charity patron.
Education
She was educated at the Hanford School from the age of eight to twelve and then at the Sherborne School for Girls in Dorset where, in the sixth form, she became Head of her house (a role of responsibility similar to a prefect). She attended Exeter University where she read Spanish and Italian.
Career
Prior to publishing any novels, she worked in London, first in public relations for the outfitters Swaine Adeney and later for the jeweller Theo Fennell. She also worked as a shop assistant in Farmacia Santa Maria Novella, the perfumery, and in events for Ralph Lauren.
She sent her first manuscript to several literary agents, using a nom de plume in order to distance herself from her sister. Only one agent expressed an interest, but this led to a bidding war between several publishers, ending with a six-figure advance.
Since 2002, Montefiore has published at least one novel a year. Four of her books are set in Argentina, where she spent 1989 as a gap year teaching English. Her books have been characterised as "beach-read blockbusters," selling over two million copies in 20 translations.
She counts as her literary influences The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, and the authors Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Mary Wesley, Eckhart Tolle, and Daphne du Maurier. Isabel Allende is important to her as well.
Personal life
Montefiore is married to writer and historian Simon Sebag Montefiore. They were brought together by the historian Andrew Roberts, who thought "they would be absolutely perfect for each other because they were the only two people he knew who could remember the words to "Evita" by heart." She says of their marriage:
Sebag and I do bring out the best in each other. I wouldn’t have written if not for him and he might not have written books either, as he was a ladies’ man, always chasing girls, but now his home life is stable and sorted. We write in the same house, in separate offices and he helps me with plots. I think you have to be a team. Laughter is everything. Mr Darcy would have been so boring to live with—you don’t want to live with someone who is smouldering all the time.
Santa converted to Judaism before the marriage. The wedding was held at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, with which her husband's family have been associated for generations. Their long-time friends, Charles, Prince of Wales, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, attended the wedding.
The Montefiores have two children, Lily and Sasha. They spend the week in London and the weekends at a house on her parents' estate at Dummer, Hampshire. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 4/7/2016 .)