One of six children, Tara was born in the Curragh of Kildare, Ireland, where her father was an army officer. The family moved a number of times, including to the Middle East, before returning and settling in Dublin. Educated by the St Louis nuns, Tara, went on to a rather Victorian establishment, Littledale’s Commercial College, Harcourt Street, where a couple of Hinge & Bracket types attempted to iindoctrinate her in the arts of shorthand and typing. She survived the experience and a series of stable but uninspiring jobs followed – insurance, banking, accountancy and law. Her only aim then, as ever, was to give it all up to follow in the footsteps of her heroines, the Brontės, Jane Austen, Daphne de Maurier et al.

In 1985 she moved to London, where she met and married her first husband a Spanish/Moroccan very handsome, great fun, but totally unreliable! They had two sons, Tarek and Emmet. Sadly the marriage broke up and they divorced in 2000. In 2005, fed up with living in the big smoke, Tara and her sons moved to the lovely harbour town of Ramsgate on the East Kent coast. Shortly after, she met her second husband aka “the love of her life”, Dr David Moore, whom she married in Sorrento in April 2008.