the dotty series

Whether we harbour a secret soft-spot for them, or simply love to hate them, everyone has their favourite “baddie”. They are undoubtedly the best thing to write. My editor always says my writing comes alive when I write the scenes with the baddies in. And I have to say I think she’s right. I personally believe that the best kind of “baddie” is the one you can identify with in some way – someone who is flawed – human – who you think could be fixed – and only by you. My husband

A little like Dotty after that fateful bonfire party in suburban Cardiff, my little family and I find ourselves currently dispossessed on account of a fire at our home. It was a simple case of bad luck – so the fire brigade told us. What we thought was a chimney fire turned out to be not a fire in the chimney stack itself, but rather a stray ember that had blown up between the brick built chimney breast and the wood panelling that encased it, where it had lay smouldering and