Valerie Anand

Early life Anand spent her early childhood in Kent before the Second World War broke out, after which her father joined the RAF while she and her mother went to live with his Aunt Clara in Leatherhead, Surrey. Her father's anecdotes from the war inspired Anand to later learn to fly a plane herself, training at London Biggin Hill.

Initially disinterested in history as a subject, Anand was influenced to write medieval historical fiction after seeing the film Ivanhoe (1952) in cinemas as a teenager. she wrote the series of historical mysteries, set in the reign of Elizabeth I, featuring "Ursula Blanchard" (whose full name is Ursula Faldene Blanchard de la Roche Stannard). Under her own name, she wrote historical fiction based on the royalty of England and the Bridges over Time series which follows a family from the eleventh century through the twentieth century. She has also written To a Native Shore, a contemporary novel that explores British prejudice toward Indian Sikhs.

Anand also held the copyrights to The Fallen Pinnacle, a 1997 novel about Atlantis written under the pseudonym Valerie M. Irwin.

Innocence of King Richard III Valerie Anand was a believer in the innocence of King Richard III in the matter of the Princes in the Tower, i.e. a Ricardian. She presented this view in Crown of Roses, making the point that the former tutor of Edward V, John Alcock, remained on good terms with the king, which he presumably would not have done had he suspected him of being responsible for the death of his former student.

Personal life Anand was a feminist and critical of the 1950s ideals of marriage and domestic life. At age 31, Anand met her future husband Dalip Singh Anand of Northern India. The couple married in 1970.