Working Title: Surfacing

When my publisher asked for a slight change of direction – something shorter, more mature and bittersweet, and focused around one central character – I cracked my fingers over the keyboard and gave it my best. There are certain books I can point to, during the creation of which, my life changed. It’s usually easy to spot – whilst writing Between Males I moved away from London, during Tongue in Cheek I realised my marriage was over, I fell in love again as I wrote Four Play and life was all about motherhood and moving during Kiss and Tell. This book, telling of forty-something house-sitter Jenny finding her mojo after divorce, rollicked along in my usual upbeat style with lots of high-jinx involving a particularly badly behaved German Pointer until she sits for a portrait and her mask comes off, and only then do we see a whole new angle to her.

Trivial fact: Whilst I was convinced that Jenny was a profound metaphor for the mojo of middle-aged womanhood, it was the dog who got the best reviews by far when the book came out.