Motivations behind writing, huh? Write because I have to, am compulsive writer. Started as soon as I could hold a pen. Fascinated by books. Best thing my mother did for me was introduce me to the library. I read everything they had, but two books I read over and over were by Felix Salten - Bambi, and Maya, the Story of a Bee. I read all the Famous Five and wanted to be like them. I made up adventures and lived them out with my best friend. I was in love with William Brown and grieved that he could never grow up and I could never meet him. I loved books about boarding school, but would have hated to be sent to one. The next good thing my parents did for me was to put me to work in a Library. There I saw, at sixteen, coming across the counter, books I would never have sought out on my own. Each of us assistants had our own drawer, and into that drawer went novels by Pearl S. Buck (China before the Revolution), Frances Parkinson Keyes (American Deep South), and many others. I was interested in reading about the different lives that people led. Then came Colette, and I was really truly in love with an author for the first time. It wasn't the stories, it was the way she wrote them, the way she saw into people's souls. Psychology affected me deeply, and I loved analysing myself and everyone around me. When I began to seriously write my own books I had to stop reading novels altogether - I was too easily influenced by style, and if I was reading Donleavy, I would be writing like Donleavy. It wasn't difficult to give up novels, as I had discovered astrology and married a blind husband - two things that made reading difficult. My spare time was cut down and I only had time to read what was essential. I developed tremendously under his influence - magic, astrology, tarot, gardening, walking, cycling. These are the background influences.

usual GCE O levels, A levels gained after leaving school, HCIMA (catering and hotel management)