Mez Packer

Mez Packer is an English novelist, born in Essex in 1966. She is the author of Among Thieves and The Game Is Alteredand an Associate Senior Lecturer at Coventry University.

Packer spent her early years amongst the Plymouth Brethren, in Essex. She attended Warwick University – 1984–88 – gaining a degree in Philosophy and literature.

From the late 1990s to 2003, she worked as a web designer, BBC broadcast journalist and content producer. At present she continues her work in Internet media and communications.

Racism is a theme central to her first published work, which Cathi Unsworth of the Guardian praised as "a highly original debut". She lives with her husband and two daughters in Leamington Spa.

Among Thieves was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book – South Asia and Europe, longlisted for the 2010 Author's Club First Novel Award and shortlisted for The People's Book Prize.