Mari Strachan was born into a Welsh family in Harlech, on the north-west coast of Wales, in 1945. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in History and English she qualified as a chartered librarian, a career she pursued until retirement with occasional forays into other occupations. She recently acquired an MA in creative writing from Manchester Metropolitan University.

The Earth Hums in B Flat, set in a fictionalised version of her hometown, is her first novel, followed by Blow on a Dead Man's Embers in 2011, both published by Canongate. She lives in Ceredigion, west Wales. The Earth Hums in B Flat, translated into numerous languages, was a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime in April 2009. It was chosen as one of Waterstone’s New Voices in Spring 2009, and won the Amazon Rising Star award from the Spring 2009 selection.