I’ve wanted to be a writer since early childhood. Either that or an air hostess (great uniform), Olympic gymnast (also great uniform) or a playwright. I would have liked to be a top fashion designer, but my stick figures, despite years of practice, were never going to make the cover of Vogue.

I wanted to be a writer so much that I didn’t dare actually do any serious writing for many years. Instead, I got a couple of literature degrees. Reading was so much easier than writing. Then I was an earring packager, tour guide, lobbyist, management consultant, web project manager and many other fun things that are now known as my ‘gathering material’ phase. As opposed to my ‘sitting down and doing it’ phase, which is what I’m happily in now.

I’ve written for The Times and The Guardian, and also four unpublished detective stories, but my breakthrough was winning The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction competition with Threads. It’s about fashion, celebrity watching, being a teenager in London, conflict survival and, above all, friendship. Since then, Ive written two sequels and three other YA novels,
looking at the worlds of modelling, surviving family illness, pop, reality TV, cyberbullying, adventure, mystery and surviving unseen on an island in the Mediterranean.

Occasionally, people ask me what my advice would be to aspiring writers. Check out my writing tips page, on my website. Write every day, and rewrite even more. Follow your heart.