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Hidden Faces is set in a typically English, tiny infant school, and follows the lives of three teachers. The story begins when one of the teachers rushes home to collect her forgotten lunch and finds a dead body in her shed. She is late, it is the day of the school play, she is coping with too much already – she simply bolts the shed door and returns to school.

A few years ago, I was at a party enjoying a white wine, when someone said to me, “Oh, you drink!”
I was their five year old child’s school teacher, and because I spent my days reciting nursery rhymes and counting to ten, they obviously thought this continued after work too.The fact that their child’s teacher was drinking, even (horrors) slightly tipsy, was shocking!

Primary school teachers tend to not smoke and swear when at work, they don’t have sex or lose their temper. Some people think they don’t at home either.

I met similar views when growing up. My father was a Baptist minister, and growing up in a manse was a strange experience. We were seen as ‘different’, as people who didn’t behave as ‘normal’ people did. It was also assumed that my thoughts and views would be the same as my father’s. I recall giving an opinion once, and someone saying, “But your father doesn’t think that.” They were totally confused – how could I have a different point of view to my father, when he was the minister?

I began writing full time two years ago. I was invited to a lunch, and the after dinner speaker was the bestselling author Adele Parks. As she told us her story, how she loved to tell stories and write, I thought, ‘I could do that.’ I have always told stories – to my children and pupils and friends – now I write them down and tell them to strangers.

When I wrote my first book, Hidden Faces, I wanted to show that people have different sides, different masks if you like. Everyone says ‘write what you know’, and I followed this advice with my first book. I wrote about being a primary school teacher, I wrote about growing up in a Baptist manse, I wrote about people having different sides to their characters, changing their behaviour to fit who they’re with.

I am a person who likes to laugh, and that humour infiltrates my books, making the stories an easy read. I tend to write about strong women and teenaged boys, because these are the people who I know best.

The story will appeal to women everywhere. The characters are strong and true to life, they are the people who we meet every day. As we glimpse behind their professional masks, into their thoughts and lives, we feel that we know them. Their thoughts and actions are sometimes amusing or shocking, always realistic. By the end of the book, the reader will feel they are real people – and be itching to give them some advice!

Published summer 2016

To order copies of Hidden Faces please complete your details on the contact form below.

Hidden Faces costs £7.95 plus:
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£7.80 p&p to USA and Canada
£5.60 p&p to Europe
£8.55 p&p to Australia
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