Sara Craven

Anne Ashurst (née Bushell; October 1938 in Devon, England – 15 November 2017 ), who wrote using the pseudonym Sara Craven, was a British author of over 80 romance novels. Her novels were published by Mills & Boon from 1975. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the 26th Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Biography Anne "Annie" Bushell was born in October 1938 in Devon, England. She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to write romance. In 1975, she sold her first romance novel to Mills & Boon, under the pseudonym of Sara Craven.

In 1997, she was the overall winner of the final series of the first run of the BBC Television quiz programme Mastermind. That same year, saw her participate as part of a team of Mastermind finalists in a special edition of University Challenge against that show's series champions, Magdalen College, Oxford. She also participated in a special edition of the BBC Radio 4 quiz Masterbrain against Brain of Britain champion Daphne Fowler, losing to Fowler by 20 points.

Divorced twice, she lived in the Midlands town of Rugby in England, but was a regular visitor to New York City, where her twin grandchildren live. Ashurst died on the morning of 15 November 2017.