I became a writer because of Anne of Green Gables.
Clear My Name
I saw the 1985 adaptation when I was 11 and it had a huge effect on me. Anne wanted to be a writer and I wanted to be Anne. I think I’m still trying to be Anne actually.
Before I started writing I was a self-employed physiotherapist.
I ran a busy practice in the Lake District and treated mostly necks and backs. Sometimes I wish I’d skipped this part of my life and gone straight from university to writing novels as it suits my personality better. But there isn’t a day of writing that isn’t made easier by the scientific knowledge I accrued there.
My work has been adapted for the screen both in the UK and in France.
My first book Just What Kind of Mother Are You? is about a woman juggling a busy work life with three children when her best friend’s child goes missing. There was keen interest from production companies both in the US and the UK but was made first by a really cool French guy who adapted Harlan Coben’s work. It’s since been adapted in the UK too and Deep Water, starring Anna Friel, will air on ITV in August.
My latest book – Clear My Name – examines a case of miscarriage of justice.
I became fascinated by the subject of wrongful convictions after becoming hooked on the many recent documentaries: Making a Murderer, Serial, Conviction, the Staircase. And I wondered: what would it be like for a woman to go through that nightmare?
I wrote Clear My Name very differently to my other books
I had a difficult experience when writing my last book - it needed 3 or 4 big edits – which was unusual for me. And so I was exhausted and fed up by the time I’d finished. I knew I needed to change something so I wrote Clear My Name first as a screenplay. I showed it to my editors to make sure I had everything in the right place before I began the process of turning it into a novel. It was much easier to move individual scenes around than moving whole chapters, and with the screenplay as a blueprint, writing the novel was very fast. Only 10 weeks.
I live in Bowness-on-Windemere and write in my bedroom overlooking the lake.
It’s the perfect place to work as I never feel cooped up or locked away from the rest of the world.
My typical writing day.
I get my youngest off to school, walk the dog, and then begin. I tend to write a set number of words each day and stick to it, even if I don’t want to, even if the writing is like wading through treacle. I work office hours with maybe a nap in the afternoon if my brain is completely fried.
So far, all of my books have been set in the Lakes and the North West.
This is partly out of laziness – I only have to look out of my window to describe the landscape, but also, I write about this place because I really know the people. I know how they behave, what they’d say in different situations. I know their hopes and dreams and shortcomings. I also know about their petty jealousies and how they tend to self-sabotage both in love and work.
I don’t usually read the type of books I write
I think this is because I can work out the plot and so I’m rarely surprised or excited by a whodunnit. I like to read books about characters with complicated inner lives, and books with a comic element.
Recent favourites reads
I loved: Standard Deviation by Kathering Heiny, The Spare Room by Helen Garner, I am I am I am by Maggie O’Farrell, and Northline by Willy Vlautin.