Author interview, Amanda Prowse

Lou Trimby meets Bristol author Amanda Prowse, who began a prolific and bestselling career at 40

Bristol-based Amanda Prowse is a bestselling author of 20 novels, all unafraid to confront the grim realities of life with a healthy dash of humour. Here she is on her adopted city, starting to write at 40 and more.

So, Amanda: tell us a little about yourself.
I am an army wife, mother and writer, not necessarily in that order! I have two sons in their twenties who are both away at university and I miss them more than I should admit. I come from a big close family and we have lived in Bristol on and off since I was 17 (over 30 years ago). I then met and married a Bristolian: my husband is from Bedminster to be exact, so it was an obvious choice for us to settle in this amazing city. He still refuses to call me a local. 

You began writing full-time at the age of 40 – what gave you the impetus? 
Throughout my life, I had a wide variety of jobs, but never felt truly fulfilled. It finally took a bout of cancer to give me the shove I needed to re-evaluate my life. After I got the all-clear, I finally figured out that I only had one time around the block and that I should do what I really wanted to do. And that was to write stories. So I gave up my job and wrote full time, which took a lot of courage. But, 20 novels later, taking that leap of faith was the best thing I could have ever done. 

Do you find Bristol an inspiring city to live and write in?
More so than any other. I love this city – its diversity, architecture, green spaces, people. Several of my stories are set locally, notably one about alcoholism set in the Bristol suburbs. I love that within a short drive from my front door I can be in the countryside, the seaside, strolling the Gloucester Road or watching the sun set on the Harbourside.

Your heroines frequently find themselves in difficult circumstances. Is it hard to come up with new approaches to this?
To be honest, I find it quite easy. My stories come to me fully formed like lightning strikes. The same happens with my heroines. My stories are strongly inspired by real life: for example, with my new novel The Food of Love, I was inspired by the realisation that my family uses food as a social glue. Whether it be baking a cake, swapping recipes or holding parities, food was central to how we show love. I wanted to explore a family like mine with food at the heart of everything that they do, and how they react when food becomes the problem as well as the solution. 

If you could have written any novel, which would you choose?
I think it would have to be The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough. I first read this when I was fourteen and it consumed me. I remember diving into the pages and being transported to a remote sheep station in Australia. It has unrequited love, lust, greed, subterfuge and redemption. I remember reading it for the first time and thinking how amazing it would be to write a story that could whisk someone away like that…

The Food of Love (Lake Union, £8.99) is out now.
www.amandaprowse.org