They say you put all your life into your first book and then when you have to write a second one you’ve used up all the food in the fridge.  This was definitely how I felt about starting a second book as I really did put my whole life – plus a few other lives into Living Dangerously.  My heroine, Polly, had my job (making salads in a wholefood café) my cat (she was very elderly and I wanted her immortalised – she actually went on to appear in my fourth book) my keep fit class, my wardrobe (mostly from jumble sales and charity shops) and my town.

I learnt to really love Stroud when I had a job there (the whole food café) and saw it early in the morning.  That was all a long time ago now and the town has changed a lot.  But the people are still a bit rebellious, still different from the inhabitants of other stone towns clinging to the side of hills.

Writing a full length book after trying to write for Mills and Boon for years was a bit like coming out of a convent – wonderful and terrifying.  But I was convinced no one was ever going to read this book except possibly, my agent, and flung everything in.  Although at the time it felt very difficult and very freeing but looking back I realise how much fun I had.