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It got good Fun in the sun, 2017 It was 2016 when I first realised that I no longer identified myself as anxious. That’s not to say I didn’t worry about anything. It was just that the worrying had stopped defining me, had stopped stopping me from being myself. It took a LOT of work, belief and dedication to effectively rewire my brain. I had Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and also used some techniques from ‘The Linden Method’. I still take SSRIs and I probably always will. Con

Do I worry about AI? It's a question that comes up quite frequently these days in interviews. And I always answer 'no.' That's not to say I don't have occasional concerns about the future of AI, and it's not to say that I don't worry about its impact on humanity as a whole... but when it comes to writing, for the most part I'm pretty relaxed about its potential impact on my life. As someone whose life was blighted by anxiety in the past, I also know that worrying doesn't actu

You take it with you I mentioned in my first post that our decision to move to France was largely a form of escape. I was close to burnout at work (although I don’t think I knew the term) and would be ill every other week. I was also struggling with crippling anxiety. The idea of leaving my job and moving somewhere brand new and utterly tranquil was appealing for so many reasons. And I felt that if I could just make it to France, everything would be OK. Lots of things were. I

Our life in France The more astute readers will have noticed there’s a subtle link between several of my novels. That’s right! They’re set in France. I’ve never been a Francophile in the real sense. I remember at school complaining that I had to study French and saying: ‘it’s not like I’ll ever live in France.’ WRONG! That said, my teen years weren’t great in terms of insight. I was also convinced I was going to marry Mark Owen from Take That and that my friend Jo and I were

I’ve always been fascinated with stories, and started writing from a young age. I remember being inspired by ‘The Garden Gang’ by Jayne Fisher who was published at just 9 years old. If she could do it, maybe I could be an author! I still remember being 9 and having my story read out to the whole year group at school; it was so embarrassing but such a thrill at the same time. I was 19 when I started writing my first novel. What followed was several manuscripts that reached 20,