Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up on the high moor on Dartmoor, which is a very remote part of England. It is famous for its very bleak prison, its mists, and it is most famously captured in books like 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'. It is very atmospheric, and very beautiful. Although I moved away from there when I was a young adult to go to University, Dartmoor always stays with me. As my granddad once told me, 'Dartmoor gets in your blood'. This means it is there in everything I write.
My first two novels, 'The Lychway' and 'Somewhere She is There' are both partly set on Dartmooor.
When did you first start writing?
As a child. Living where we did, you had to make your own entertainment. I spent most of my time walking on the moors, watching old Hollywood films, and writing. I have always been a journal writer, and then when I reached my late twenties, I started to write fiction.
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