Moira Young was born in New Westminster, BC, on the west coast of Canada, to a business man father and a primary teacher mother. She has two younger sisters and all her immediate and extended family live in the Vancouver area.
Moira graduated from high school in Winnipeg, and from University of British Columbia with a history degree. She moved to the UK to attend The Drama Studio in 1983/4. She gained her Equity card performing with Fancy Goods on the alternative comedy circuit in the mid-80s when highlights included being pelted with fruit and vegetables by the audience at the infamous Tunnel Club and being hissed off the stage at the Lewisham Labour Club... She became a tap-dancing chorus girl in London’s West End, appearing in High Society at the Victoria Palace directed by Richard Eyre.
From 1988 – 1992, Moira lived back in Vancouver, where she retrained as an opera singer and was winner of the Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions, Western Canada in 1991. In 1992, she moved back to the UK to continue vocal studies and work in opera, where she sang in most London venues and also toured in the UK and France with Travelling Opera. Her solo concerts include St Martin’s-in-the-Fields and the National Portrait Gallery.
Moira’s first ambition was always to be a writer. She wrote her first book aged 9 entitled ‘The Heirloom Mystery’. Shortly after that, she was bitten by the theatre bug and didn’t take up writing again until 2003 when she enrolled on Elizabeth Hawkins’ Writing for Children course and workshop at the City Lit (2003-2005). She hasn’t stopped writing since. Moira now lives in Bath with her husband.
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