What do you do when you want to write but are too scared of being unable to support yourself?

Well, right or wrong, I spent many years working as a chartered accountant in finance and business, doing corporate life in large multinationals, and running my own business, interspersed with flying, off-road driving competitions, and raising a daughter. It’s all been invaluable as ammunition, er, inspiration, for my writing. I’ve written a children’s musical and a business book, produced an animated short film, and continue to write poetry.

Having recently retired from finance, my time is my own and the world is my playground. In May 2019, I took the plunge and attended a writing retreat in Spain with Global Wordsmiths. What a revelation! Equipped with a brand new toolkit, and a skipful of teacher-inspired confidence, My first full length novel, Warm Pearls and Paper Cranes was published in October 2021. I was delighted it won a Golden Crown Literary Society (Goldie) award for a historical novel.

My second novel, Of Light and Love was published in September 2022.

Some random things about me…

As a child, I said I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. Now my novels are published, I should feel like a grown up. Hmm, maybe not!

I love the classics and literary fiction. My daughter is named after one of my heroines from Jane Austen. No, she’s not called Darcy.  I’ve also been known to “borrow” my daughter’s books, from Harry Potter to the Daughter of The Empire series, and I cried over John Green’s books. Crime novels don’t really do it for me. Who dunnit? Who cares?

In addition to doing all the finance bits, I have a Masters Degree in animation, which was largely an excuse to watch lots of cartoons for a year and a half.

I’m walking the Mendip Way seven miles at a time. Just as well I’m not doing Land’s End to John O’ Groats. Oh, and I live near Bristol, England with my daughter and am servant to our neurotic cat, Jerry.