Mary Lesser

I was the first in my class to learn to read. I actually moved the teacher's finger away from the line so that I could get on with reading the story. She pulled me up onto her knee and kissed me.

When I was six my mother asked me what I was going to do with my life. I told her I wanted to be a 'maker of books for people to read'. She thought that was a good idea. By the time I was eleven the village librarian allowed me to have an adult ticket because my reading outstripped my age.

On my twelfth birthday my mother asked me if I'd had any more ideas about my life and I said I thought I might go on the pill and take lovers. She thought that was interesting, but perhaps only one lover at a time.

When I turned eighteen my mother asked if there anything else I wanted to do and my response was that I'd really like to travel and learn things. She said that was definitely something she'd recommend.

I've been so lucky having achieved all three wishes, having lived and worked in two countries and seven counties. Whilst writing the Cornish series I lived on a ley line between the moors in Cornwall with my husband and Daisy our tortoiseshell cat.

We now live in the beautiful Scottish Borders. It's a new chapter.