Gillian Morgan

Ever since I learnt to read, I've read. Enid Blyton's 'Sunny Stories, tales of wild Arabian stallions, 'School Friend' comic, magazines, all provided hours of enjoyment.

After leaving school, I worked in the Civil Service, before taking a break of ten years to bring up my two daughters.

During this time I started a novel, which I sent to a large publisher. It was returned with a rejection slip and a letter suggesting ways I might improve on the story. Instead of rewriting the book, I decided to teach, because the life of a writer was uncertain and financially precarious.

A few years later,I won a small writing competition in 'Woman's Realm' magazine, the prize being a mini library of books. This spurred me to approach a publisher with a postcard book I had assembled. After 'Fishguard in Old Photographs' came out I started writing columns for two local newspapers.

In my mid-fifties I took early retirement from my job as a headteacher and enrolled on a Creative Writing course, with the intention of producing a novel. Finding I enjoyed writing poetry, I concluded I was never meant be a novelist.

However, my mother and daughter did not agree. My daughters told me this was my 'Now or never' moment. They believed I was avoiding writing and their assumption was correct. I knew I could start a book, but I feared being unable to finish it.

However, to please them, I sat down at the computer and the first chapter of the novel that was to become 'Salt Blue' appeared on the page. I knew I had found my creative voice. Without thinking very much about it I set the story in the 1950's, told in the first person by Stella, my heroine.

'Salt Blue' took five years to write. I wrote half the book fairly quickly, but lost inspiration half way through. Thankfully, Honno editor Caroline Oakley did not give up on me.

'Salt Blue' has been listed as one of the hundred most important novels to come out this year by 'News from Nowhere'. This alone has made it all worthwhile.