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WRITERS MEAN BUSINESS OUR
WRITERS MEAN BUSINESS 
Tell us about your latest book The Wild Child?
I wanted this book to be about inter family relationships like
my others, but at it's core is a family struggling to help their dyslexic
twin boys. It's about their failures and successes. In 1970/1980's Merseyside,
there was little understanding to help to be had. There have been many books
about dyslexia. Teanxt books on how to help the dyslexic child and personal
accounts and experiences of people affected by it. But as far as I know,
this is the first novel featuring characters trying to cope with the problem
and how it affects the whole family.
Where did you get your ideas and inspiration from?
More perspiration than inspiration in this case. I've wanted to
write this book for a long time. My husband is dyslexic and our son is more
affected than he is. It's something I feel strongly about having struggled
to do the best for my own family over the years. I was working as a Health
Visitor then and trying to help other mothers facing the same problem.
Do you always draw on personal experience?
I suppose all writers do to some extent, but The Wild Child
comes much more from personal experience than any of my others. I'm so close
to this problem that for the first time I've written a sequel. It's about
the same family when the children are teenagers and leaving school. It's
called a Labour of Love and will be out in hardback in September.
What books do you read when you are not writing?
I like to pick and choose from recently published books. I've just
finished reading Over by Margaret Forster. She's a serious novelist
I much admire. I'm starting on Alexander McCall Smith's Blue Shoes and
Happiness, which is all fun and froth and set in Botswana. I'm also
dipping into Buried Treasure by Victoria Findlay, which is virtually
a text books on precious stones. Jewels have always interested me.
What books would you take on a desert island?
I'd need practical advice. I'd take how-to-do-it books on how to
build a mud hut, fish, hunt and survive in the wild.
Who are your heroes?
Heroes are D.Y.Y. for writers. I have to have one for every book.
They need to be kind and considerate, honest, generous, trustworthy, and
totally hooked on the heroine. It helps if they look good too.
Where would you most like to travel?
I've lived and worked in different parts of Africa, and visited
many more. It continues to fascinate me and I'd love to see places like
Mozambique and Nyasaland.
March 2007