Interview: Lesley Pearse

Lesley Pearse, whose romantic sagas have earned her a place in the top 100 best-selling authors of the decade, doesn't do dull.

Today, the author is single and lives alone in a cottage in a pretty village between Bristol and Bath, but even in idyllic surroundings she can manage to find the dark and the horrific.

Her latest novel, Stolen, begins with the discovery of a young woman washed up on the beach at Brighton with amnesia who is recognised in the papers by an old friend. Ultimately, it's a tale about friendship as the two, who met on a cruise ship, resolve past differences.

Pearse, 64, says the idea was spawned during a cruise around South America several years ago.

"It was the most boring thing I've ever done in my life – it was very posh and the towns we stopped at were very boring. I started thinking about what could happen to people who worked on a ship."

So she gatecrashed some of the staff parties, which was far more fun, and the people she met and the towns she visited sparked the idea for something more dramatic.

Picturesque settings have been the backdrop for some horrendous experiences in her own life, including being caught up in the 2004 Asian tsunami while in Thailand with two of her daughters and grandson, Brandon.

"On Christmas Day the girls were desperate to go on a coach to this party near Phuket so I agreed to look after Brandon, who was then six. I went out into the jungle with a friend and in the afternoon someone came up and told us there had been an earthquake in Phuket.

"The television news wasn't working in English so I was seeing all these waves and was absolutely panic-stricken. I knew the girls were going to Phuket but didn't know where they were staying and they weren't responding to my phone calls or text messages."

Two days later the girls made contact. "It was the longest two days of my life," Lesley recalls. "They didn't realise the magnitude of it."

The incident has brought the family closer than ever, she reflects. "It made me realise how precious my daughters are," she says. She speaks to them most days and visits as often as she can.

Pearse, whose mother died when she was three, spent her early years in an orphanage until her father, a Royal Marine, remarried.

"My stepmother had been a nurse in the Army so the house was run like a military campaign."

At 16, Lesley headed for the bright lights and spent the Swinging Sixties in London doing various jobs including time as a bunny girl.

"A girlfriend of mine wanted the job so I went along with her but then they picked me, because I'm tall with long legs and big boobs and just looked the part. By the time I got there, the heyday of the club was already over."

Her first marriage lasted 18 months. "I don't talk about that much because it's so boring," she laughs.

However, her next marriage to John Pritchard, a trumpet player in a rock band, was much more colourful and they had a daughter, who they named Lucy.

Her first novel, Georgia, was inspired by their life together, the London clubs and many musicians she met during that time, including David Bowie and Steve Marriott of The Small Faces.

The marriage fizzled out when Lucy was 18 months old. It was after their divorce, when she was hitchhiking from Lancashire to Bristol for a job interview with Lucy in tow, she met her third husband, Nigel Pearse, a lorry driver with a "body to die for".

They married three years later and had two more daughters, Sammy and Jo. During this time, Lesley ran a playgroup and started writing short stories at night.

"One day I wrote a letter about the lack of contents of my fridge to Woman's Own, saying I couldn't understand why it wasn't like the adverts with the ham and the chicken, just a bit of dried up pastry and an old potato, and they paid me 25 for the star letter of the week."

More letters followed, eventually leading to her enrolling on a short story course.

"The year I turned 40 I decided to start my own business, get something published and pass my driving test." She opened a gift shop in Bristol, passed her driving test and wrote her debut novel, Georgia. But it took six years and endless rejections before the book was published and it wasn't an instant best-seller.

Her 18-year marriage broke up and at 50 she had a breakdown following the strain of the collapse of her business and the debts.

However, then her books started to take off. "By the time I was 60 I was here in this idyllic cottage and everything had calmed down." Now she says: "I'm writing a book about a Victorian brothel. It's all terribly exciting."

Stolen by Lesley Pearse is published by Michael Joseph priced 17.99. Lesley will talk about her life and her work at Kirkburton Library on February 17 at 7.30pm. For tickets call 01484 222592.