Ann Cleeves (born 1954) is an English crime-writer. In 2006 she won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger for her novel Raven Black. Cleeves was born in Herefordshire and brought up in north Devon where she attended Barnstaple Grammar School; she studied English at the University of Sussex but dropped out and then took up various jobs including cook at the Fair Isle bird observatory, auxiliary coastguard, probation officer, library outreach worker and child care officer. She lives in Whitley Bay, and is widowed with two daughters.