Hilary Menos was born in Luton in 1964, studied PPE at Wadham College, Oxford and worked as a student union activist, journalist, and Time Outrestaurant critic in London before moving to Devon to renovate a Domesday Manor.Between 2004 and 2011 she and her husband ran a 100 acre organic farm breeding pedigree Red Devon cows and Wiltshire Horn sheep.

She completed an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2013, and worked with Exeter-based children’s theatre company Quirk Theatre as dramaturge and script overseer.

Her first pamphlet, Extra Maths, was a winner in The Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition 2004, and her second pamphlet, Wheelbarrow Farm, was a winner in the Templar Poetry Pamphlet and Collection Competition 2010. Her first collection, Berg (Seren, 2009), won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2010. Her second collection, Red Devon, was published by Seren in June 2013.