Born in Jamaica in 1951, Patricia Duncker emigrated with her family to London in 1964. She was educated at Bedales School before reading English at Newnham College, Cambridge in 1970-73, followed by a doctorate in literature at St Hugh's College, Oxford. She is a lecturer at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, where she teaches writing and literature. Her first book, Sisters and Strangers, an introduction to contemporary feminist fiction, was published in 1992. Hallucinating Foucault (1996), her first novel, won the Dillons First Fiction Award in 1996 and the McKitterick Prize for the best first novel published that year. Her collection of short stories, Monsieur Shoushana's Lemon Trees, was published in 1997. She currently divides her time between south Wales, Narbonne in southwestern France, and London.