I’ve been an avid reader since I could, well, read. I don’t remember learning, but I do remember going to Alton Towers when you still had to pay while in your car and under fives were free. My dad kept saying ‘Put that book down or they’ll think you’re older and we’ll have to pay for you!’
Laura Pearson
When I was five, one of my friends knocked the school bell off a shelf and it fell on my head. It was one of those really heavy metal ones and now I’m a mum, I hate to think of my mum getting the phone call about it. I was ok, though. I only needed one stitch.
I used to live in New York, on Wall Street. It was only for about eighteen months, but it was really great. I used to spend a lot of time writing and reading on the roof terrace. And we had a lot of visitors.
I love Coronation Street. The theme music is associated with so many childhood memories. I remember being really scared when Brian Tilsley got stabbed. I stopped watching it for a couple of years once but my mum used to talk to me about it anyway, so I started again.
I’m a terrible driver. It took me about a hundred lessons and two tests to pass, and I’ve never felt like I can do it properly. I don’t think I’ve done a parallel park since my test. When I moved to London in 2005, I didn’t drive for the next ten years, but then I had to start again when we moved out to a village in Leicestershire.
I don’t have any first cousins. I’m the only person I know who doesn’t.
When I was a baby, my mum used to leave me outside in the pram (people did that then, apparently). Our next-door neighbours were having an extension built and the builders used to sing ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’ to me. I’ve been told this so many times that I feel like I remember it.
As a child, I wrote a letter to Jim’ll Fix It that started Dear Jim’ll. My parents refused to send it. I’m glad now, looking back.
My first writing job was as a copywriter at QVC. I had to write about everything from jewellery to electronics to beauty products and I loved it. There was a staff shop and I once bought a cross-trainer in there for a fiver and then called my boyfriend (now husband) to ask for help getting it home.
My favourite song is Famous Blue Raincoat by Leonard Cohen. It’s achingly beautiful. I saw Leonard Cohen play three times, in Amsterdam, London and New York, and he was incredible every time.
