Janet Neel

Janet Neel Cohen is a daughter of George Edric Neel, an architect, and his wife Mary Isabel Budge, a social worker. She was educated at South Hampstead High School, London, and graduated with honors from the University of Cambridge in 1962 with a B.A. in law.

She worked in the United States before returning to the UK to start practicing as a solicitor in 1965. In 1971, she married James Lionel Cohen. She served as a Governor of the BBC between 1994 and 1999. She was created Baroness Cohen of Pimlico in 2000 and sits in the House of Lords as a Labour peer.

As Janet Neel, she is the author of numerous crime novels, beginning with Death's Bright Angel in 1988. She has also written fiction under the name Janet Cohen.