MY PATH TO PUBLICATION
HANNAH DOLBY
The debut author finally found the key to success when she realised that she – and her lead character – could be funny
© Tricia Keracher-Summerfield
‘We
were a house held up by books.
One of my earliest memories is sitting cross-legged on a carpet aged four or five, a towering pile of Ladybird books in front of me, quivering with excitement about which to choose. I had four older siblings, and my mother took us to the library twice a week, so we all read fast, and teachers often made me re-read things four or five times over, because they didn’t believe I had read them. I loved writing stories too, about witches and dragons and trees that could talk, but I was not consciously looking to be a writer. For most of my childhood, because I liked cuddly animals, I wanted to be a farmer’s wife.
‘By the time university came, though, I knew writing was one of my passions. I studied humanities, a wonderfully varied degree, specialising in English and creative writing in my final year. My thesis was a portfolio of short stories, poems and book reviews, and last-minute as always, I remember sitting in the pub with a friend, frantically writing a poem about monks. ‘After that, I was lucky enough to get on a five-month journalism course run by Westminster Press, in Hastings. The memories of the crumbling, grand Victorian buildings and the stunning promenade, the deprivation and the beauty of the town, stayed with me, and is the reason Hastings is the setting for my novel now.