I left university and went to live in Italy for a year and taught English. I think this was something to do with a plethora of Ivory Merchant movies, portraying wilful young women finding true love and sense of self in Venice, they were popular back then. I didn’t find either but still had a marvellous time.

Back in the UK in 1992, I moved to London and started a career in advertising. The next decade reads like, well, one of my books...I played out my life at double speed. I worked extremely hard, earning prestigious promotions in London’s top agencies on cool accounts such as Wonderbra and Levi's. I moved to Botswana for a couple of years. When I returned to London I continued with my career in advertising, securing a ball breaking role at Accenture, the world’s largest management and technology consultancy. I designed and built a house in West London. I went to the gym, went out on the tiles and nearly went out of my mind. Oh yeah, and in my spare time I wrote Playing Away, which became the debut best seller of the millennium.

Sounds fantastic.

And it was.

I know I’ve been really lucky. At the end of 2000 I gave birth to my adored son. In 2001 my next novel, Game Over also became a best seller. Since then all my novels, Larger Than Life, The Other Woman’s Shoes, Still Thinking Of You and Husbands and Young Wives' Tales have been bestsellers. Thank you to all of my fans for your continued support, there would be no point in doing this if you guys weren't reading the results.

You will be pleased to know that book eight, Tell Me Something, is out now and I am already busy writing book number nine for release in 2009. I'm doing this from the relative sanctuary of Guildford, where my husband, son and I now live a quieter life.