I always wanted to write but it took nearly thirty adult years to get my first novel published. I pinch myself every day that I can now call myself a Sunday Times best-seller. I used to think I wanted to write romance but then I worked in a prison and my voice got darker.
The Dead Ex
My best writing time is in the morning. I need complete peace and quiet. Don’t tell anyone but I’ve sneaked down to a beach hut we’ve rented for the summer to write this.
My mother died when she was 56. I miss her every day and instinctively know what she would advise when I need guidance. When she was dying, she asked what I hoped to do in the future. I told her I wanted to write a novel and she nodded her head and said ‘I thought so’. She also warned me that bad things would happen in my life because they do to most people – but that I would find a way through. She was right.
I have a phobia about driving on motorways. Once I got on one by mistake and had a panic attack. Somehow I managed to get off at the next junction.
I have black fingers. We’re talking gardening here. Everything dies on me but I still keep trying. I even have an allotment.
I love playing tennis. I wasn’t sporty at school but I’ve got that way, as I’ve become older. I also jog with the dog and do yoga.
I’ve interviewed hundreds of celebrities but the only one who turned me weak at the knees was David Essex, my teenage heart-throb.
I recently got stuck in a lift for four and a half minutes with Nicholas Parsons from Just A Minute. Long story.
Apparently I was born with my arms ‘sealed’ together with skin membrane and they had to gently separate them. I like to think this was a sign that I wrote in the womb.
I got the title for THE DEAD EX when a friend of mine turned up for our morning swim with a new bike. I complimented her on its swish appearance and she said it belonged ‘to the dead ex’. Her former husband had sadly died and she was tasked with sorting out his belongings. I commiserated and then asked if I could use it. (The title, not the bike.)
THE DEAD EX by JANE CORRY is published by PENGUIN VIKING on June 28.