Niema Ash was born and brought up in Montreal.
She was in China when the forbidden kingdom of Tibet was opened to travellers for the first time. Her account of a traditional ‘sky burial’ was published in the Sunday Times, and she was encouraged to write a book about her journey – Touching Tibet – by that paper's editor.
She is also the author of Connecting Dors, the authorised biography of screen star Diana Dors, written in collaboration with the actress’ son Jason Lake.