MERREN TAIT didn’t know she had a writer lurking in her, but after studying literature, teaching literature, and sharing the love of it as a librarian, she figures it had only been a matter of time before the author within burst out. The Year of the Fox, her first novel, is what happened after a year of feverish writing in her spare time. She is currently drafting her second novel, The Songbird Plot.

Merren lives in a small house on a large piece of land near Raglan, New Zealand where she dreams up fabulous names for her chickens. Like Princess Layer.