Mary Horlock worked as a curator at the Tate Gallery Liverpool and Tate Britain, and has written widely on contemporary art and artists. Her first novel, The Book of Lies, was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. Her 2018 book Joseph Gray’s Camouflage is a multi-layered story of art, war, love and deception about the artist Joseph Gray, Horlock's great-grandfather, pieced together through private letters, diaries, archives and interviews.