Helen Cross was born in 1967 and brought up in East Yorkshire, England which provides the setting for her novels. She was educated at Goldsmith's College, University of London, and later completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Her first novel, My Summer of Love (2001) was the winner of a Betty Trask Award in 2002 and was made into a film directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Her latest book is The Secrets She Keeps (2005).

Helen Cross has also written short stories which have appeared in various magazines and anthologies, as well as a stage play, a screenplay and several plays for the radio. She was awarded an Arts Council International Fellowship to work on her writing in Canada.