I wasn’t one of those children whose mothers boasted ‘we always knew she’d be a writer’.  I wasn’t always writing but I was always reading. At first I read to my dolls and then to my cat, until at about six or seven I was reading stuff I thought wouldn’t interest them but I still liked memorising and reciting poetry

My mother, like many whose lives had been interrupted by war and Depression, wanted me to have the chances she hadn’t had. So I was taught dancing, piano, singing and elocution which was the only subject I continued with to complete Speech & Drama teaching qualifications.

You’d think I would tire of words all the time – reading them, writing them and speaking them, but I still love to hear the melodic delivery of beautiful words.  I joined amateur dramatic societies and trod the footlights.

Around 22 my marriage failed – or rather I failed my marriage.  That’s when I started some serious writing. My cat Louis and I spent every available hour together.  I wrote and read and he listened and nodded approvingly. I was a copywriter by day and a fledgling poet at nights and weekends. 

I was writing sonnets and experimenting with new forms.  Then I discovered O Henry and started writing short stories, a format I have always liked.  I never felt inclined to share my feelings with anyone so I wrote my hopes and anxieties into stories and poems.

When I started writing ‘The Spider’s Strategy’ I had no idea where it would lead.  And indeed, no matter how much I plotted to steer it away from my own experiences, the more it returned to what I knew. It is really hard to keep your self out of your writing.  Especially when you’re writing ‘people’ rather than ‘plot’.