“It’s one of the most accurate, sensitive, soulful portrayals of domestic violence – and how the main character is affected in the years afterwards – that I’ve come across.

It’s also probably the only book I’ve ever read that tells the truth of what it’s like to lose one parent while young, and have your remaining parent let you down. And how alone that leaves you in this world.

I suspect the author has some lived experience. And I am sorry for that. But I also feel less alone for this beautiful story she has written.”

This is taken from a lovely, thoughtful review of The Beginning of Everything. It made me smile, I admit, which might seem inappropriate. Not because there’s anything remotely amusing in this person’s experiences or thoughts, or their kindness in sharing this reaction with other potential readers, but because in fact I have no personal experience of either of these things.

I didn’t do any research, either. I didn’t need to, because what I do have is many, many years’ experience of listening to other people talk about their lives. In addition to that, my endless curiosity, I’ve read a lot of books, essays and articles; I’ve seen a lot of films; and I spend a lot of time thinking about my characters.

I am a writer, and I make stuff up.

Generally it’s hard for me to make up anything as astonishing as some people’s real lives, but I can come up with reasonably plausible scenarios and – I like to think – emotional truths. It is very validating to know that for some readers at least, these emotional truths are so convincing that they believe in them entirely.

Because I write contemporary fiction about people ‘like me’ (white, British, lower-middle class, middle-aged etc.) perhaps it’s hard to imagine that nothing I write is ‘true’ in any technical sense.

Readers are always interested to know whether anything in my books is autobiographical, and the answer is that the autobiographical parts of my writing tend to be intangible, or set dressing, so ‘feelings’, or the way a character takes their tea. My work is riddled with tiny, specific details taken from my own life, but the big picture stuff? That’s all made up.