Elizabeth Diamond

Having always wanted to be a writer, it wasn't until I was in my early fifties when my first novel, An Accidental Light, was published. This was the very first full-length novel I'd ever tried to write - before that I'd concentrated mainly on writing poetry. I had carried the opening scene around in my head for years, and told myself that if I ever wrote a novel it would begin in that way - and yet it wasn't until after the novel was accepted for publication that the reason dawned on me as to why that opening scene had been so compelling. When I was thirteen years old one of my best friends at school had died in the very same way - by running out from the back of a bus into the path of an oncoming car. I literally had never made the connection before!