SOPHIE Hannah proudly follows in the footsteps of Britain's greatest female crime writers.
But while she happily extols the virtues of Agatha Christie, you'd be making a mistake if you assumed her characters were twin-setted old ladies who serve up macaroons between murders.
The award winning poet turned best-selling novelist takes the personal details of everyday life and then shakes it up to make a chilling combination of taut suspense and hair-raising drama.
In this OutLoud interview, Hannah discusses why she can't resist a secret, why male writers can't help but dabble in the criminal underworld, and the state of poetry today.
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Born in Manchester, Sophie Hannah has been writing compulsively since childhood. After leaving university she published her first book of poetry,
Early Bird Blues, which was an instant hit. Fellowships at Trinity College, Cambridge and Wolfson College, Oxford, followed and she also taught creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
She has published eight collections of poetry, which are studied at GCSE, A-level and degree level across the UK.
Her first crime novel,
Little Face, named after the nickname given to her by her husband Dan, was published in 2006 and longlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, and the IMPAC Award.
Hurting Distance followed in 2007.
Three other novels,
Gripless,
Cordian and Corrosive Arrow and
The Superpower of Love Arrow were published between 1999 and 2002.
Due out later this year is
Pessimism for Beginners, a new collection of poetry, and
The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets, a collection of nine short stories including
The Octupus Nest, which was the winner of the 2004 Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition.
Hannah is a regular contributor on a number of TV and radio shows and works extensively with the British Council overseas. She lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and their two young children.
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