Shelley was born in Calcutta and moved to London with her family when she was a child. She was a winner in the ICA's New Blood fiction competition (1996) with her short story Via Calcutta, published in the on-line anthology Endangered Species. Shrapnel was produced by The Steam Industry at BAC (1999). Falling was at the Bush Theatre (2002) where Shelley was the Pearson writer-in-residence. Radio work includes devising and co-writing The Magpie Stories, Calcutta Kosher, and The Sound Of Silence, all for Radio Four. She adapted (with John Harvey) Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet, which was broadcast on Radio Four in 2005. She is under commission to the Bush Theatre for Moses Mohammed, and Tamasha Theatre for Partitions. She has written a 90' film, The Wedding Dress, for Touchpaper TV. Shelley has compiled and edited Twelve Days, an anthology published in November 2004.

...marvellously funny and touching…