Nicci and Sean were married in 1990 and since 1999 have lived in Elmsett in East Anglia, England. Nicci has two children, Edgar and Anna, from her first marriage, and the couple have two daughters of their own, Hadley and Molly.

Nicci Gerrard was born on June 10, 1958. She grew up in Worcestershire, together with her two sisters and her brother.

She was educated at The Alice Ottley School in Worcester. She then studied English literature at Oxford University and went on to teach literature in Los Angeles and London. She founded a women's magazine before becoming a freelance journalist. During that time she married and had two children.

Following the failure of this first marriage, she met Sean French whilst working as editor for the New Statesman where French wrote a weekly column, but left when she was offered another job at The Observer.

Sean French was born on May 28, 1959 in Bristol. He was, like his two younger brothers Patrick and Karl, educated at William Ellis secondary school in north London before studying English literature at Oxford University. Sean and Nicci never met while there. While at Oxford University, French won a young writers contest organised by Vogue, and subsequently became a journalist.

In 1987 he got his first column and until the end of 2000 he wrote columns for the New Statesman.

The writers use self-imposed constraints: the main character is always a strong and vulnerable woman, independent and stubborn. They don't use real facts, only personal anecdotes, encounters or journeys. They write in alternation, and then rewrite each other's texts.