Long ago my two great interests were clothes and writing so I decided to become a fashion journalist. Fortunately for me you didn't need a degree for this and I got a job at Queen Magazine as a 'dog's body' (surely such a description would be politically incorrect today!) in the fashion department. It was a great job, lurking in the background among the great designers, models and photographers, watching them work. Later I got a job in Paris at Jardins des Modes and worked on the Paris Collections - photo shoots of the clothes all night, attending the shows by day. The models had lovely slim figures but there were no size zeros then or huge salaries so we all got on so well. Being Paris the food sent into the studios was delicious and we all enjoyed it without stressing about putting on weight etc. I loved my time there but I didn't do much writing that was left to the copy editor. I met my husband and returned to London to live and contacted another glossy magazine for a job, but they would not even see me, saying 'married women have babies'. I was upset at the time but it was that putdown that that started me writing fiction - I did have babies (3, now grown up and 2 grandsons). While bringing them up I wrote short stories and novels having discovered that fiction was what I was happiest with. I have now had 11 novels published and have various others in the pipeline.