About Allie
I have been writing stories since I could hold a pencil and by the time I was in Junior School I was writing copiously and sometimes almost legibly.
It was at this time that I had the difference between fiction and lies forcefully impressed upon me, after penning a long and entirely spurious account of my grandfather’s death and funeral.
My mother was mortified when she found out.
The teacher had permitted it as being good therapy for bereavement whereas in fact—as Mum knew all too well—it was only a good excuse to get out of learning my multiplication tables (something I have never achieved).
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I did, however, manage a BA in English and Drama from Birmingham University and an MA in English from Queen Mary College, London. Marriage and motherhood put my writing career on hold for some years until 1992 when I began work on Game Show.
In the meantime I worked as a production manager for an educational publishing company, an educational resources copywriter, a bookkeeper for a small printing firm, and was the landlady of a country pub in Yorkshire, a small guest house in Cheshire and the proprietor of a group of boutique holiday cottages in Cumbria. Most recently I taught English Literature to Lifelong Learners.
Nowadays I write as full time as five grandchildren, a husband, two Cockerpoos and a lovely house in Cumbria will permit.
I write stories which are based in the real world. With the exception perhaps of Game Show, they are about the kinds of ordinary and extra-ordinary things which could take place in any neighbourhood to your friends and acquaintances. I strive for truthfulness, to imbue characters and situations with truth which makes them vivid and credible, giving them a life of their own. If things have truth then they have significance—they mean something—both to me and to the reader; we can both vicariously experience, walk in new shoes or see with clarity something that was muddied before.
I’d be delighted to provide questions and discussion topics about my books. If you aren’t too far away I can visit Book Clubs, WIs and Creative Writing Groups to give a short talk, run a workshop or give a reading.
Please contact me directly to arrange this:
Allie is available to speak to local Book Clubs, and also shares her recommendations about other authors whose books you might enjoy: