Susan Howatch is a British author born on 14 July 1940. Her writing career has been distinguished by family saga-type novels that describe the lives of related characters over long periods of time. Her later books have gained recognition for their religious and philosophical themes.

Howatch was born in Surrey, England. She began writing as a teenager and published her first book after moving to the United States in 1964. She achieved global success with her five sagas and later with her novels about the Church of England in the twentieth century. She has since returned to live in Surrey.