Chantal Simon studied medicine at St. John's College, Cambridge then Lincoln College, Oxford. She then worked for the Nuffield Department of Medicine in Oxford as a junior doctor before getting married and moving South to join the GP training scheme in Southampton. After a short spell as a full time GP, she took up a post at the University of Southampton. She continues to practice part time as a GP at the Orchard Surgery in Christchurch, Dorset, and is also the mother of three children aged 13, 11 and 9 years. Her first book was the Oxford Handbook of General Practice which she started work on in 1999 and completed in 2002. When not working, she is an avid reader (strictly fiction), skier and sailor.