My first book – The Note – was based on a true story. I loved a handsome stranger on a train from afar on my daily commute. It was excruciating, as no one talked on the train, so I never had a chance to strike up conversation with him, plus I was too shy to. After almost a year, I gave him a note asking him out for a drink. He said no at first, he had a girlfriend. But eight months later his circumstances had changed, and he asked me back out. We’re now married with two kids.
The Postcard
I’ve run seven marathons. Running changed my life. It got me through a break-up, gave me the confidence and power to apply for jobs I wouldn’t have considered, and I get all my best plot ideas when I’m running. It’s become such an integral part of my life, I worry about not being able to run in future. I run three times a week without fail, wherever I am in the world, and have finished seven marathons – including New York, London, Berlin and Florence, just to keep me on my toes!
My dad is a poet. His name is John Gohorry and he’s been writing forever and published eleven books and anthologies. As well as his big projects he always writes at least one haiku a day too. When we used to go running together, he would set us a challenge of coming up with a haiku on a theme, which we would then go home, think about, and text each other. I treasure those haikus in my notebook.
I won the Weakest Link. In 2003 I went on the TV gameshow and won it. I have no idea how. If I’d have been given hours to come up with the winning answer (“Norman Mailer”) I wouldn’t have got it. Somehow, being on the spot made it come out of nowhere.
I spent a decade working in magazines and another ten years as a freelancer. I started on Cosmopolitan and then moved to the teen version, CosmoGIRL. It was the best job I’ve ever had (author aside) as we used to sit and listen to music all day, interview pop stars, and engage with fun and fearless teen girls, who were brilliant young women. It was a sad day when the magazine folded – and many more have since. I understand why consumers favour fast news and instant clicks, but there is nothing like sitting down with a crisp new issue of your favourite magazine on your lap.
Ricky Martin got me through my degree. I studied Spanish and Latin American studies at university, and my Spanish wasn’t up to scratch until I went to Mexico on my year abroad. There I fell in love with Luis Miguel, Alejandro Fernandez, and of course Ricky Martin. Their more traditional songs were the soundtrack to my time there (and were great for learning the subjunctive clause and becoming fluent in Spanish!). Now my young boys like to listen to Ricky Martin and Shakira when we have a kitchen disco, and I know they're learning Spanish too!
The Postcard is based on my travels with my husband, aka Train Man. We spent a year travelling, from India to Panama, and I wanted to get a lot of the colours and characters we met along the way into my book. There’s a part of the novel where Maya and James go to an intense detox spa in Thailand and people ask me if it really was as gross as I’ve written it (self-administered colonics? Check). Much of it was true (we really were served a live king cobra at dinner in Vietnam), although fortunately there weren’t quite as many relationship curveballs in real life as Maya and James stumble across on their adventures…
The Postcard (£7.99, Head Of Zeus/Aria) is out now