I was born in Castleford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. For those who don’t know Yorkshire well, they might wonder what ‘Riding’ means (except when on horseback), whereas born and bred Yorkshire men and women who grew up believing that Yorkshire really is God’s Own County had the knowledge injected into their marrow from birth. ‘Riding’ is derived from the Danish thridding or ‘third’, hence we have North, East and West Riding, but not South, except in a most famous book of which you will know or will have read. The areas are all different in their landscapes and beauty.
A Mother's Choice
When I was thirteen, we moved to live in Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding. Hull is a city quite different from the town of Castleford, and I soon began to love it. Living in Hull and adjacent areas had an enormous impact on me as I began to learn of its ancient history, its culture, its art and began to explore and discover what had been there before Hitler began his devastating attack in World War Two. In other words, I stepped back in time.
Since childhood I have been imaginative; I have always had a story in my head – and this was the beginning of my love of the written word, setting me on course to write children’s stories, pieces of prose and short stories that were never published.
Many years later, I became totally absorbed in writing my first romantic historical novel. People might have been a little anxious to see a woman standing by the Humber Estuary gazing out into the far distance or walking along the crumbling cliffs of the east coast, muttering as she clutched a chunk of oozing boulder clay. Well, it’s all right, it was only me.
I often go ‘walk-about’ as I consider the next phase in a new novel: writing of resilient women often living in poverty, I regularly set out to soak up the atmosphere and put myself under my characters’ skin. A little odd, you think? Well yes, perhaps, but you have to be odd in order to be an author; it’s part and parcel of the vocation we have chosen. The occupation might not appeal to anyone normal.
It is now twenty-five years since I entered my first novel The Hungry Tide for the first prestigious Catherine Cookson Fiction Prize – and won. It was an incredible coup for someone who had never written a novel before and who had never been published. I am astounded to this day at my launch into this wonderful career and since then I have never stopped writing.
In this year of Hull UK’s City of Culture, I was conferred with an honorary degree of Doctor of the University of Hull in recognition of dedication to literature, a subject I love. I am blessed indeed.