London-born Lysa left school to join a travelling circus, working in Europe for four years as an acrobat and ring-mistress. In a slight change of direction, she qualified first as a nurse then as a paramedic and finally an emergency care practitioner, spending over twenty years saving lives in the UK. She still works shifts in a London Urgent Care centre but is at her happiest when spending time in her old farmhouse nestled deep in the chestnut forests, in the mountains of Tuscany, nursing a glass of prosecco and, finally, living the dream.