The Actuary's Wife

The first time K T Bowes won a writing competition she was six and the sound of the applause as she went up on stage stayed with her for at least half an hour. Then when they presented her with a Jaffa biscuit as a prize the shine wore off and she palmed it off on her baby sister after school. She wrote in her teenage years because the local paper paid money to kids for stories and she subsidised her role as sales assistant in a chip shop with her writing. Married with four children, her work history includes a variety of roles from law enforcement officer to chief pot and bottle washer in a hospital. She gained a drawer full of diplomas and certificates over the years for her numerous jobs but the most unused one was an honours degree in English.

Eleven years ago after getting on a plane with a rucksack, a suitcase and a one way ticket to New Zealand with her family, K T Bowes dusted off her degree certificate and began to write again.Seven years later and she'd produced three novels which were published first on the book site which must not be named here. A few years on and she's an international best seller with nineteen books published under the Hakarimata Press label and available in most online retailers.

K T Bowes is still in New Zealand and still married, but the four children she crossed the world with have all grown up and started doing incredible things of their own. Now in their twenties, they all seem to be stuck in the tertiary system as eternal students but one day they might find their way out - although they aren't currently looking for the exit. She visits them there regularly and sends food parcels and money.

She used to horse ride but kept falling off and breaking bones so now stays almost safely on the treadmill - almost safely because she has fallen off that too. Her constant writing companion is a ginger cat called Nahla who sleeps in her desk drawer and follows her everywhere, begging for her picture to go on Twitter.