Barbara Hodgson is a book designer and writer. In addition to her three novels, The Tattooed Map, The Sensualist and Hippolyte's Island, she is the co-author of Paris Out of Hand, and Italy Out of Hand. Her non-fiction works include The Rat: A Perverse Miscellany, Opium: A Portrait of the Heavenly Demon and In the Arms of Morpheus: The Tragic History of Laudanum, Morphine and Patent Medicines. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.