Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in the industrial North West of England, but this did nothing to influence my writing, in fact, it stifled it. My writing only took off once I left the area and fled north of the border into Scotland, onto Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire.
When did you first start writing?
I have been writing since I was about five years old, always the precocious scribbler in my class. I won an essay competition at school, and always got top marks for creative writing in English classes. My writing tailed off during college, ceasing altogether during my career, except for a few pieces for the workplace magazine, and during my time raising my children. It started up again with a vengeance almost the second I moved to my Scottish home 9 years ago.
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