Sharon Griffiths

Born in Pembrokeshire, West Wales – perfect beaches, narrow lanes, banks of primroses. There, and later in Brecon, I enjoyed a splendid Famous Five - or maybe William and the Outlaws - type childhood, with a freedom that seems astonishing today.

After Brecon Girls’ Grammar School, I studied English at the University of Bristol, where in between a lot of 1960s-type activities, I read voraciously, anything and everything from Beowulf to Brian Aldiss, an incredibly privileged three years. Joined the BBC as a secretary in Radio Oxford, moved into publicity in Birmingham and London, and as Senior Press Officer at late-lamented Southern Television in Southampton. As well as the day job, was a Radio Times writer too, interviewing people such as WH Auden, Elspeth Huxley, Dennis Potter… Even at the time, I think I realised how lucky I was. On a press trip with forty men on a goods train from Ipswich to Glasgow (don’t ask…) I met my husband, brilliant journalist Mike Amos of The Northern Echo.

I moved north, got a job on the Echo, and we were married two years later.

Since our first son was born, I have been a freelance feature writer, writing for anyone who pays me, national and regional, home and abroad, but principally for The Northern Echo in Darlington and the Eastern Daily Press in Norwich, for whom I write two opinion columns a week. Being paid for your opinions is a great privilege. On the other hand, it’s a bit tricky when you have a deadline, a thousand words to write, a blank screen and an even blanker brain…

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No work, no pay, is a great incentive and so I don’t believe in writer’s block. For many years I also wrote a Mum At Large column, about the trials of life with two teenage sons. Complete strangers used to come up to me in supermarkets and exchange horror stories. My sons, Adam and Owen, were very laid back about being written about. They are fantastic and life with them, even now, is never dull. Among the many things I do is to review books, interview authors and judge novel writing competitions, so, finally, once the boys left home, I thought I’d better get round to writing one of my own. This is out in July and I’m now working on the next one.  I’m still writing all those columns and features too, so I have a head buzzing with words. This could sometimes explain my totally baffled expression.   After a blazing row with her boyfriend, Will, journalist Rosie Harford sets off for her latest reporting assignment – an interview at The Meadows, a local housing estate and possible setting for a new reality TV show, The 1950s House. Stepping through the front door Rosie finds herself transported back into the 1950s. No mobile phones, no supermarkets, no Lycra, no ready meals, no hair straighteners.. Rosie’s world gets more bizarre when she discovers that Will is here too, but in the 1950s he’s called Billy and is a devoted family man and father of three. Thrown together by work, the two grow close until Rosie falls in love with him all over again, But now he’s out of bounds. Unless she can get back to the present…. Published July 2008 In a packed nightclub a glamorous model leaps from a window and escapes into the night. Food writer Tilly Flint is the sole witness. Soon afterwards Tilly finds herself alone on a working holiday in the wild moorland of the North Pennines. Yet there are connections with her London life and with her strong minded great grandmother. As she explores the moors she keeps finding mysterious pieces of cherry red ribbon and learns more about her family history and herself. A chance meeting with notorious celebrity footballer Clayton Silver leads Tilly into a dangerous world. Can the ribbons from the past be her lifeline in the present? Published September 2009  http://www.sharon-griffiths.com/index.html