Hello! And welcome to my GoodReads author page.

New: my Bad Mothers Pinterest board! See where Charlotte, Karen and Nan actually live!

and my Bad Mothers Facebook page, with lots of background info on the characters and filming:


I write bittersweet novels about family drama and personal crises, especially stories involving the relationship between mothers and daughters.

I like my books to ask questions such as, What makes a parent good or bad? In what way does a familys history shape its present? How can we make the best of the hand which life has dealt us?

My characters tend to have ordinary backgrounds - but actually I think no one is truly ordinary. We all have amazing tales to tell of risk and loss, survival and disaster and triumph, on whatever scale. The most intense dramas are often played out across a domestic stage, with unexpected discoveries and revelations, patterns repeated or shattered forever, bonds broken and new alliances formed.

Ive found myself as a reader that meeting such issues in fiction can help me make sense of the real world around me.

Recurring themes in my books include adoption, pregnancy/fertility issues, sexuality, disability, infidelity and the breaking of family secrets. I also tend to set the action in a specific place around Lancashire, Cheshire or Shropshire.Read Less