Maria McCann's first novel, As Meat Loves Salt, was published by Flamingo in 2000 to huge acclaim: Andrew Marr praised it as 'outstanding...with all the dirt, stink, rasp and flavour of the time' and Lionel Shriver called it 'riveting'. Maria's fiction has also been published in various anthologies. Since 1986 Maria has been living and working in Somerset, apart from one year spent teaching in France. She combines teaching and writing with other interests such as voluntary communities and the allotments movement. Her second novel, The Wilding, was published in 2009.