I write contemporary fiction for women who've live long enough not to expect the fairytale. I love writing about ordinary people because in the end, most families are extraordinary in some way. I'm particularly interested in how five people witnessing the same event and conversation will all have a different view on what actually happened/was said and most of all, what was intended.
Kerry Fisher, The Woman in My Home
My latest book, The Woman in My Home, was partly inspired by the idea that someone who cleans your house has a more intimate knowledge of your daily life than your closest friend - and could choose to use it to their advantage.
I used to live in Italy and still feel a weird homesickness for the way of life there almost thirty years later. My husband and I promised ourselves we'd spend a month in Rome one day and we managed it this March. I spent every day wandering and wondering, peering into courtyards and people watching. Our landlady took me zipping through the traffic on the back of her motorbike and I felt both vibrantly young and a step closer to death.
My first novel had the snappy title of Wives and Cows from Your Own Country. It's still sitting in a drawer but I learnt a lot from writing it: mainly that it's not enough for people to go from restaurant to restaurant even in a beautiful place like Tuscany if not much happens in between.
My mother goes into her local library every time I have a new book out and takes it as a personal insult if it's not on the shelves. If she does find it, she tells anyone sitting in the vicinity that 'my daughter wrote this book' and probably makes them late for work because they're too polite to leave. However, that's nowhere near as embarrassing as when she tells waiters in pizza restaurants that I speak Italian and they look blank and say, 'I'm from Nottingham.'
Ten novels and one non-fiction book later, I still find it excruciating when someone says, 'I'm reading your book' followed by a funny little silence. I'm never brave enough to say, 'Are you enjoying it?'
When I was younger, I used to think gardening was for people who weren't busy enough but now I get ridiculously excited when seeds I've planted start coming through. I love spring bulbs, especially snake's head fritillaries. I've just come back from the Keukenhof tulip gardens in the Netherlands and I was bowled over by the beauty of nature.
BONUS
Life has taught me that the little things - Sunday lunch, a walk in the hills, watching a film with people you love - are life's big things. (See number 9)
My non-fiction book, Take My Hand, came from the toughest period of my life. My (then) 17-year-old son had cancer at the same time as my best friend lost her son to suicide. We wrote about everything we learnt and what we knew could help other people. Some of the messages we've had about that book and what people have taken from it have been the most humbling and rewarding I've ever received.
I'm utterly unobservant about what people look like, which makes me a fantastic friend if you've been at the biscuits but a hopeless one if you've been on a diet - 'I've lost two stone, thank you for noticing!'. What I do remember about people is how they make me feel.
Buy The Woman in My Home by Kerry Fisher: https://geni.us/B09RST7TGMsocial
Kerry Fisher is a million-copy bestselling author. She writes women's contemporary fiction, is a USA Today bestseller and her books have been translated into twelve languages. She was born in Peterborough, studied French and Italian at the University of Bath and spent several years living in Spain, Italy and Corsica. After returning to England to work as a journalist, she eventually abandoned real life stories for the secrets of fictional families. She lives in Surrey with her husband, and a naughty Lab/Schnauzer called Poppy, who joins in the huge dances of joy when her young adult children come home.
RELATED: Kerry Fisher and Pat Sowa, co-authors of Take My Hand share an extract from the book
