 Laurence was the 1998/1999 Chair of the Crime Writers' Association, and has been Chair of a number of CWA award judging panels including in 2007 and 2008 for the CWA Ellis Peters Award for best Historical Crime Novel and in 2013 for the CWA International Award.Laurence has written three contemporary women's novels under the pen name Julia Lisle, a book on how to write cookery books, and a book on how to write crime fiction.