About Annabelle
Brought up in Dorset, America, London, Hong Kong and Wiltshire, I have worked in photography, event production and marketing. But my passions are in food and writing. For a while I ran my own cottage industry making handmade jams, jellies and chutneys and was lucky enough to receive two Great Taste Awards.
But then writing began to take over and to try to bring some order to my pretty chaotic writing, I joined the Faber Academy and completed their How to Write a Novel course.
After finishing my first novel I studied a Masters in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University where I wrote the first half of my second novel. Now I’m working on getting that elusive second book finished.
Why do I write?
What is it that makes me write? Well, it seems that it’s usually place that inspires me. I can be somewhere, minding my own business and suddenly I get that feeling, a little buzz in my chest, a little fizz of excitement and I know that a story idea is brewing. This happened whilst we were driving along the side of Loch More in Sutherland, on our way to the west coast of Scotland. This place is remote, just a tiny road running along the four-mile ribbon loch, the nearest shop is miles away and the closest pub has recently closed. There’s just one house on the other side of the loch from the road. It appeared to be an old cottage and I began to wonder who on earth would live out there, especially over one hundred years ago? That’s how my story for The Herbalist’s Secret started.
Now I recognise when a story is on its way and never go anywhere without my notebook and precious purple pen – be it on the hills in Scotland, a B & B in Edinburgh or on 5th Avenue, New York – there’s always a story to be found if I scratch the surface of the place I’m in.