Painter, printmaker and teacher, born in Liverpool. Graduated from the Ruskin School, Oxford, 1986, with a master’s degree in 1991, gaining a postgraduate diploma in printmaking at Central School in 1988. Went on to lecture at Royal Academy Schools, Ruskin School, Middlesex University and Leeds Polytechnic. She was elected a fellow of the RE in 1991, being its honorary curator of prints. As well as regularly showing with the RE, in 1991 Desmet was elected a member and exhibited with SWE, and she showed with Printmakers’ Council and at RA Summer Exhibitions. Awards and prizes included Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award, 1989 (and 1996); British School at Rome Scholarship in Printmaking, 1989–90; artist-in-residence, Oriel 31, Newtown, 1990; Gordon Tuffrey Memorial Award, RWA Open Print Exhibition, Bristol, 1995; Exhibition Medal, Ex Libris Museum, Moscow, Russia, 1995; and Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, 1998.