CE20_p72_p73_Katie Fforde 10/8/2009 09:17 Page 1
Profile Katie Fforde
With a husband away at sea, two small children who didn’t sleep and a home
miles away from her friends and family, Katie Fforde became a voracious reader of
romantic paperbacks to fill the lonely hours. Mistakenly thinking that easy to read
meant easy to write, she was inspired her to try writing them herself but after
endless rejection letters including the last one that said her story “lacked sparkle”
she decided to give up on a writing career. Today she is a top-selling author with
one of the country’s most prestigious publishing houses and has 15 best-sellers to
her credit. Her latest novel Love Letters has just hit the bookshelves and she has just
sealed another four book deal. She spoke to Cotswold Essence about the turning point that launched her on the
road to success, the joy of being able to employ a gardener and the thrill of becoming a grandmother.
Words by Sue Smith
“I was But she tried without
Pictures by Sarah Standing
alone a success and decided to give
lot as my up on any aspirations to be
husband, a writer.
IT is the one of the most
Desmond It was only when she
was away moved to Gloucestershire
glorious English summer working and her third child,
afternoons that make you
and most of Briony was born that she
the books in gave it another go.
realise why you love living in
the mobile “One Christmas my
Gloucestershire.
library were mother gave me a
The birds are twittering and
written in writing kit of paper,
Welsh. pencils and a
Katie Fforde is serving up tea “Mills & thesaurus,” says Katie.
in the garden of her home
Boon was “She didn’t say
perfect for anything but the
perched high above the
picking up and message was pretty
Stroud Valleys.
putting down clear - ‘stop talking
“I can enjoy being in the garden now
without losing about it and do it.’”
that I pay someone to tend to it,” she
the thread. Katie, who had a
says.
“They were part-time job at the
“Before that I just couldn’t face coming
only about 50,000 time at Stroud’s
out here and just enjoying it as there was
words long and I organic café and
always some corner of weeds
didn’t need to think shop Mother Nature,
admonishing me with a disapproving
too hard to get decided to write a novel using her
wink.”
through them,” says own experiences.
Despite just finishing a book launch
Katie. “I decided to set it in Stroud. I gave
tour for her latest novel, Love Letters,
At the time M&B were publishing the main character my job and my
Katie is working flat out putting the
around 14 books a month and Katie was life. I even put my cat in it - I didn't
finishing touches to her next book.
soaking them up. think she would live much longer as
She is prolific in her writing and has
“They were my little reward when I she was 15 then but she lasted
produced a book a year since getting her
had sorted out the kids and they stopped another 5 years so I included her
first break in publishing at the age of 42.
me from getting too lonely. many times after that.”
Although she had started writing
“It could just as easily have been Through her membership of the
romantic fiction ten years earlier her
Valium or chocolate but for me it was Romantic Novelists Association, Katie
efforts had brought in no more than a
romantic fiction.” chanced upon a scout for an agent
few words of encouragement swiftly
After a feast of similar stories, Katie who was just setting up and didn’t
followed by a large pile of rejection slips.
decided that some of the were very good have any clients.
“I had become quite a fan of Mills &
and some were very bad. “I always joke that she only took me
Boon when my children were small and
“I thought to myself that I must surely on because she didn't have any other
they didn’t sleep very much.
be able to write a bad one,” she says. clients,” says Katie.
72 COTSWOLDESSENCE | SEPTEMBER ~ NOVEMBER 2009 www.cotswoldessence.co.uk
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