Trisha Ashley

Trisha Ashley is a British author of romantic fiction. She has written over 27 novels, many of them Sunday Times Bestsellers, and has also published short stories and poetry. She was nominated for The Constable Trophy for Northern Writers in the 1980s, the Melissa Nathan Award for Romantic Comedy in 2009 and 2010, and the RoNA Award for Romantic Comedy Novel in 2018 and 2021. In 2024, her novel The Wedding Dress Repair Shop won the RoNA Award for Popular Fiction. In 2010 her novel Every Woman for Herself was voted one of The Three Best Romantic Novels of the Last 50 Years by the readers of Woman's Weekly in association with the Romantic Novelists Association (RNA).

Personal life Ashley was born in St Helens, in the front room over her mother's shoe shop. She has had published poetry in the local newspaper before she reached her teens. Having failed her 11+, she attended Rivington Secondary School. Her secondary school English teacher, Miss White, encouraged her writing and arranged for her to learn to touch type, which proved increasingly invaluable over the years as her vision has steadily deteriorated.

She later studied Architectural glass at Swansea School of Art. Before turning to writing full time, she held a wide variety of part-time jobs, including working for a lead light maker and as a plumber. Her first major success was with Twelve Days of Christmas (2010). Her novels have been translated into many languages including Italian, Portuguese, German and Russian. Her latest novel is The Wedding Dress Repair Shop (2023).