Victoria by name, Victorian by nature: the only thing V. R. Ling likes better than neo-Gothic architecture is trees. She has something of "Yavanna" about her, having planted as many trees as possible in every place she has lived, establishing the world's tiniest conifer woodland at the bottom of her small garden in order to create a friendly habitat for the resident hedgehogs (affectionately named Frodo, Sam, and Pippin). She has a background in archaeology and attained a PhD in biological anthropology from King's College, Cambridge. As a lover of classic ghost story writers it's needless to say that M.R. James and the Benson brothers are well represented on her bookshelf but she confesses to preferring the likes of Algernon Blackwood, Oliver Onions, and John Metcalfe. She is an animal lover, vegan, likes sixties music, adores classic Doctor Who, Douglas Adams, Dickens, Tolkien, tea, stone circles, and has an antiquarian book collection that smells as good as it looks.