Daphne Sleigh was born in Ewell, Surrey, England. She received her master`s degree from Somerville College, Oxford, and was a librarian at the Royal Institute of British Architects. She moved to Vancouver in 1957 and became interested in BC history during the province`s 1971 centennial, for which she co-wrote a history of Maple Ridge. She was the first curator of the Maple Ridge Museum, from 1975 to 1981, and she won the Lieutenant-Governor`s Medal from the BC Historical Federation in 1984 for her book Discovering Deroche. She has written six other books, including a biography of the explorer Walter Moberly. Daphne lives in Deroche, BC, with her husband, Francis.