Pretties.

The majority of book covers DO make it to final publication, I'm pleased to say. Every time I walk into WHSmith (it tragically being the only 'bookshop' left in our town) I see at least two or three of my covers, and even though I retired from women's fiction, I still dip my un-manicured toe in now and again which keeps me on the Richard'n'Judy shelves. I used to do all of Louise Bagshawe's covers (now Mensche) and back then, it was almost into double figures on those shelves.

Currently though I'm doing more children's and teenage fiction, which I love. In fact I'm starting another one today. This series I did over about two years, and although I've only read one, they're very cute and just right for little girls. I wanted to be a ballerina and I know that had spot varnish and holographic foil been common in the early 80s, and providing they'd had these in the library, I'd have had my little hands on these.

This is the Olivia series for Nosy Crow books, IPG Children's Publisher of the Year. Written by the Guardian newspaper's theatre critic, Lyn Gardner, the stories centre around Olivia, the daughter of a circus artiste (on the cover of 'Movie Stars' she's in the sky with her Dad) and the series follows her journey through stage school and beyond. This reviewer sums them up nicely:

'This is Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers meets Noel Streatfield’s Ballet Shoes with a bit of Pamela Brown’s 'The Swish of the Curtain' thrown in for deliciously good measure'.