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" My mother's childhood was complex, disjointed, and disturbing. As children, we would gather round and ask her to tell us again and again The Story of Her Childhood. It was Grimmsian, Andersenesque: a classic fairy tale replete with goodies and baddies. "

Lisa Jewell

Children

Tell

Story

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" My parents' marriage was, on an aesthetic level, very pleasing to behold. "

" I am the oldest of three girls and the only one not named after one of my father's ex-girlfriends. "

Lisa Jewell

Oldest

Three

" My publishers find me really challenging, as a lot of the time, I don't even know what I'm going to be writing about until I sit down to do it. "

" When I travel, I can leave everything at home apart from books. I curate my holiday reading rigorously and would be devastated if I found I'd left one at home. "

" When I was a little girl, I was a real, drippy bookworm. But when I went into fashion, I stopped reading. "

" My husband loves having his own room. "

" When we were kids, we couldn't wait to have our own rooms, not to have to share anymore. And that is what I love about having my own bedroom. It is mine. My sleep is mine. Both pillows are mine. If I wake up, it is me who has woken me up... It makes me feel like a grown-up. I love it. "

" Whenever I watch any kind of competition, my immediate reaction when they call out the name of the winner is to look at the loser. "

" For a very long time, I thought everyone I met through the process of getting an agent and a publishing deal had made a mistake. When they agreed to pay me for the book, I thought they would ask me for the money back. "

" I am a terrible, terrible typist. I could not have been a writer in the age of typewriters. "

Lisa Jewell

Been

Age

" I was brought up in the same house I was born in, and I lived there until I left home as an adult. I also went to a Catholic school, which was full of Irish girls whose parents never split up, so everyone I knew had these big family set-ups. "

" My marriage is far from perfect. We're not hand-holdy and soft. We are snippy and bickery. We sleep in separate beds because we have no tolerance of each other's night-time idiosyncrasies. "

" I changed my mind about being a famous pop star when I realised that it meant I'd never be able to get on the Tube again. "

" Nick Hornby's a genius. "

Lisa Jewell

Genius

Nick

" I would never, for the sake of the story or a twist, have a character do something that they just wouldn't do. I really couldn't. I'd rather miss out on the twist. "

" Publishers have published women's fiction into a corner, and now we are all trying to punch our way out of it. We just have to write the best books we possibly can and hope that, once the pink covers and Bridget Jones have faded from memory, we might finally be allowed just to be called writers. "

" There's a weird contrast between my usual daily routine and then my book coming out. It's like someone's just suddenly opened the curtains in a dark room, and everyone's looking at you. "

" Every time I've written a book, I'm like, 'Oh, it's so different from the last one. Are they going to like it?' "

Lisa Jewell

Different

Last

" My father, Anthony, was a textile agent who sold fabric in the West End and was away a lot. He was very glamorous. When he first met my mum, he swept her off into this big, social world. "

" My father was a self-employed textile agent, and the shop below his office was an art gallery. "

" I married someone I didn't love. I was too polite to say no. "

" Writing a book is not easy. "

" My first husband dragged me out of London and made me live in the suburbs in Surrey - not where you want to be when you're 23. "

" Getting married young was the worst experience of my life. It was horrible - really horrible. "

" I look about my house and see there are lots of lovely things in it, but I constantly buy more. "

" 'Ralph's Party' was supposed to be a psychological thriller, but I fell in love with all my characters and wanted only the best for them. "

" I always wanted to write psychological thrillers. "

" I never had one of those glorious young bodies that make older men and women weep. So I don't tend to look back with nostalgia or yearn for what I've lost. Because it was never all that. "

" The older I get, the more I love psychological thrillers. "

" I take the six weeks of the school summer holidays off because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to look back on my life one day and say, 'Damn, I wish I hadn't spent so much time with my children.' "