How I got published

‘As a child I read everything I could, from books at the breakfast table to the labels on shampoo bottles. I knew I wanted to be a writer. However, I was a young girl from Oldham. I thought that all novelists were aristocrats who only wrote about boarding school and spies. I tried to stifle my longing, but it never went away.

‘It was in my twenties, doing a job I hated, that I finally plucked up the courage to try writing a novel. I taught myself to touch type and camped out in WH Smith at lunchtime, where I browsed the books, read blurbs and swatted up on the literary agents noted in the authors’ acknowledgements.

‘The first three novels I wrote were practice runs. From them I learned what I liked to write – warm-hearted, accessible, quirky fiction. A handful of agents took the time to give words of encouragement alongside their rejections, so I didn’t feel too down-hearted.

‘Novels four and five found me an agent, but I didn’t get that elusive publishing deal. So I entered a few short story competitions instead. When I won three of them, it boosted my confidence.