In the Beginning Was the Word (or how I came to write).

I'm always interested in how people become ensnared by writing, what it is that tips them over the edge into the skewed and intense world of the creative arts. With me, it was a kind of curiosity.  I was in a play (Rookery Nook - my finest hour) and didn't come on until the third act, so I used to sit nattering in my dressing room with another actress (Nichola McAuliffe - hello Nichola) and one day she mentioned that an ancestor of hers had been involved in the Rebecca Riots in South Wales.

You could have knocked me down with a feather.

One of my ancestors, a radical solicitor called Hugh Williams, was also involved in these riots, which took place between 1839 and 1842.  I was so struck by this coincidence that I began doing some light research into the subject and the information I uncovered was so particular and colourful and dramatic that it seemed like a story waiting to be told and that maybe it was even waiting for me to tell it.  So I started writing and my novel was published and I've kept on writing, because I've found that I just can't stop.