(Five feet, four and a half inches, if you’re asking.)

Teresa says she always knew she wanted to write – starting her first novel in an exercise book at around the age of ten.  “But the careers adviser at school pointed out that I might also need to pay rent  and buy shoes so she steered me diplomatically towards journalism which has meant glorious years of writing PLUS a salary cheque every month!”

Journalism has been great, Teresa says, but the desire to write fiction never went away and with her two sons now growing up “it’s time”.

All those years in news gave  Teresa what she describes as “ a fascination with dark corners. How ordinary people cope when extraordinary things happen. And how people are not always what they seem.”

The result is a penchant for mystery.

“I can’t help myself,” she says . “I go into a bright, sunny room where everyone is laughing and sipping champagne and I’m wondering who’s about to step out of the shadows.”

Alongside working on her books, Teresa is a columnist and feature writer for a wide range of newspapers and magazines. She lives in Devon with her husband, two sons ( and occasional mice in the loft).

• Teresa’s completed  book The Promise is the story of three women with an exceptional and uncomfortable bond from childhood – a story  about “the power of true friendship and the danger of secrets…”
  
  
• Her next novel A Charmed Life is about a woman who moves her family to the country “but finds a dark twist there which threatens everything she holds dear”.