A few years ago, a writer friend, Carol Hedges, invited me on to her Pink Sofa. This was a great honour, as the Pink Sofa is legendary among writers. So with her permission, here's what I wrote for her - it's a slightly different take on my life. Oh - and while I'm here, could I recommend Carol's Victorian Mysteries? Starting with this one: Diamonds and Dust.
I’ve been dying to get onto the Pink Sofa
for ages. I’ve always liked the look of the cake. And is that red wine hiding
behind the chair?
First of all, I’d like to hark back to a
previous guest here – Beryl Kingston. I was so pleased that her post had such a
terrific response because, you see, Beryl and I have quite a lot of
connections. I can’t actually remember when we discovered these, but it was
during a phone call years before social media (or any sort of media, actually!)
that we suddenly stated saying “No! Really? So did I!”
To start with, we had both lived in
Tooting, London, as children. And we had both been – wait for it - Tooting Carnival Queens! Even odder, Beryl
had been teaching at my Grammar School up until I started in the first form. It
still strikes me as strange that had it not been for an accident of timing, I
could have been taught by someone I now regard as an inspiration and a friend.
As for Carol (who?) – years ago, I lived in
St Albans, where my eldest daughter was born, and one of my best friends lived
in Harpenden, where I used to do my weekly shop in Sainsbury’s. That’s about it
as far as we’re concerned.
My own journey to publication – or, rather,
novels – is rather mundane. I wish I could present you with a picture of the struggling
artist in the attic, but I can’t. Like many writers, I started writing as a
child “making” my own books. When I got to about 11 or 12, I was filling
Woolworth’s exercise books with pony stories. It never occurred to me that I
could make a living writing – I wanted to
be an actor! I started well, debuting on the London stage at the age of
15 playing Laura in The Glass Menagerie, things rather fell off after that. I
drifted through modelling, demonstrating, (Kent Hair Brushes, since you ask)
disc jockeying in a posh nightclub wearing a silver catsuit and eventually
becoming an air stewardess for British Airways in the glory days. At least, I’m
told they were. I’ve managed to inveigle my way onto The One Show and The Alan
Titchmarsh Show on the back of that.
I married a professional musician and we
duly starved. This was the St Albans era. Eventually, the Musician, who was art
school trained, went into magazines. And one day came home with a large
cardboard box, told me to open it, assemble it and write on it how easy it was.
It was one of the first desk top computers, long before Apple or even Amstrad.
The magazine was Which Computer, and the Musician was the Art Editor. I was
launched on a career as feature writer.
Many years and a few more children later,
having discovered a penchant for writing pantomimes (still produced all over
Britain each year) and short stories for magazines, I decided to go all
highbrow and do an MA in Creative Writing. They were still very new then, and I
picked one as far away from home as possible, in Wales. On the same course was
a woman called Hazel Cushion, and at the end of the course we decided to
produce a charity anthology for Breast Cancer, called Sexy Shorts for
Christmas. We did everything between us – I commissioned, edited and typeset, the
Musician designed the cover, Hazel did everything else and proved to be a very
good business woman.
And that was the beginning of Accent Press.
Which, of course, is now going strong as a small independent publisher with a
number of bestselling titles both in print and ebook. I’m no longer anything to
do with the organisation, I simply sit back and write Libby Sarjeant books and the odd Edwardian Mystery for good measure. And thank the Lord and little green fishes I met Hazel, as I can
afford to eat for the foreseeable future.
Thank you for having me, Carol, and please
may I have a top-p? You what? You said you didn’t like red wine...
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