Betty Byers

I grew up all around the world. My dad was in the army so I've lived in Hong Kong, Germany, London and went to school in Edinburgh, Scotland. So far, it hasn't influenced my writing, although I am tempted to send Lola abroad on a case one day!

I've always written. When I was ten I went to boarding school in Scotland. My aunt gave me an old typewriter and I would type up stories for my school friends. They would be waiting for me to get to the end of the page and pull it out the typewriter! We were restricted in watching TV but had unrestricted access to books. I would also tell stories at bedtime when the lights were turned off.

When I got older I wrote a lot of poetry. Then, having a family and career delayed my creative juices for a long time. I've always wanted to write a novel, and one day I realised that the only thing that was stopping me writing it was, well, me. So I sat down and wrote it.