I am the oldest of three girls and the only one not named after one of my father’s ex-girlfriends. I was born the year after Elvis’s daughter Lisa-Marie: Lisa was the most popular girl’s name that year.
Lisa Jewell by Jascha
I am only 11 months older than my sister Sacha. We were brought up as twins.
My mother was born in India to an Anglo-Indian father and according to a recent DNA test I am 22.2% Indian. I look exactly like my dad though who is the Englishest person in the universe.
I started writing my first book, Ralph’s Party, as a bet with my friend. She took me to a Thai restaurant in Shepherds Bush when I honoured it. I think she was quite surprised.
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. It took me about fifteen years finally to be ready to write one.
I am a terrible, terrible typist. I could not have been a writer in the age of typewriters.
Fellow author Jenny Colgan and I have been exchanging daily emails for about twenty years. We were inspired by the letters between Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin. We hope to keep going until one of us drops dead.
I write in cafes, never at home. I cannot focus at home, am forever getting off my chair to do other things. In a cafe I have to sit still or I’ll look a bit unhinged.
I have five animals; a dog, two cats and two guinea pigs. They are all substitutes for the third child I didn’t get round to having.
I knew the moment I set eyes on my husband Jascha that I would marry him and bear his children. It was like a shocking thunderclap. It took him another few months to cotton on.
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell is out now (Century, £12.99)