Janet Hoggarth

Every book or article I have ever written has sprung from something else entirely. Several other ideas can be on the boil at the same time before I finally commit to writing a specific book. I will have written their rough synopsis (I never know the ending just the general direction), delved into the characters’ backgrounds and extracted their personalities, made them do quizzes on what kind of potato/chocolate bar they are. (Jersey Royal/Reeses Peanut Butter Cups FYI).

When I suddenly became a single parent in my late thirties, I felt like the rug had been whipped out from under my feet and a time of great uncertainty was about to unfold. The first person on the scene after my husband left was one of my oldest friends who held me while I sobbed and put the kids to bed so I didn’t frighten them. At the time my family lived too far away to immediately reach me and so my friends took up the slack.

Two hackneyed sayings ricocheted through my brain when I began this article. ‘Write about what you know’ and ‘Everyone has a book in them’. My latest novel, The Single Mums’ Mansion, marries both of those phrases together perfectly. Having written children’s books on and off for twenty years, I felt a change was much needed and asked my agent what he thought about branching out into adult books.