I was born and brought up in Newcastle in the North East of England. I love the place and its people. It provides the inspiration for the books I write.
My father came from India in the 1930s to study medicine in Newcastle. By the time he had qualified he had met and married my mother, the youngest of a family of thirteen. He stayed in England to become a family doctor in the North East. My father's three sisters and many members of his family before him were also doctors. But, being terrified of even the tiniest drop of blood doctoring wasn't for me.
I went to drama school in London and met and married a man who just happened to be from my own North East home town. My husband was descended from generations of fishermen. But fishing didn't appeal to him and when I met him he was working for the BBC in London. They sent him back to Newcastle and we set up home in the North East where we raised four children.
I have written ten sagas for my publishers Headline. In 2006 Fortune's Daughter was longlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Association's 'Romantic Novel of the Year' award. Starlight & Dreams is my latest book. It is set in the 1940's against the backdrop of Britain's golden era of cinema, as the nation recovers from war.
'Wanted: Glamour Girl'
Growing up under the critical eye of her father and stepmother at the wrong end of a northern seaside town, Carol Marshall longs for freedom. The picture house is where she goes to dream. There she can be someone else for an hour or two; someone carefree; someone special.
When the Palais de Dance announces a competition for a local girl to win a part in a film, Carol is persuaded by a friend to enter. To their amazement, it's Carol the judges choose and soon she's whisked away the London and swept up in a new world of glamour and excitement.
But all that glitters is not gold. And the journey to stardom is paved with danger, loneliness and vice. Carol is poised to get everything she ever wished for. But at what price...