Pollinger Limited | Clients | Frances Mary Hendry

Frances says:

"I always wanted to be a brain surgeon, but my father said he didn’t think I had the necessary dedication. So I became an English teacher instead, like 23 of my family in the last three generations. (This has probably saved a lot of lives.) At least I learned the bits of books that young people skip, and avoid writing them.

After twenty years I had a nervous breakdown; no fun while it lasted, but it changed my life. My mother told me about a competition run by the BBC and a Scottish publisher, to write a book which would be published and serialised for radio, and niggled me into trying. The competition was called ‘Quest for a Kelpie’; I misunderstood, and wrote a book of that name – and won! Thanks, mum.

I’ve had over a dozen books published. Three have won awards, so I must be doing something right.

My interests are history (until men started to wear trousers), gardening, embroidery, and especially amateur drama. I write and produce pantos, and sometimes act in them, usually as a dragon or a witch: typecasting.

I live in Nairn, in Scotland, where several of my books are set".