Sophie is a novelist and short story writer. Prior to   winning the 2011 Luke Bitmead Bursary, Sophie was also the winner of the Yeovil Literary Prize. Novel Kicks was so pleased to catch up with Sophie to find out about her writing day and who she would invite to dinner..

Tell us about your route to publication.

It’s been a very long route, starting about ten years ago when my children were small and I decided to do an evening class. I chose creative writing and struck gold with my teacher, Jan Henley who encouraged me from the first lesson. I went on to do an MA in Creative Writing by distance learning at Lancaster which really pushed me and helped me find that voice. My breakthrough moment was winning the Yeovil Literary Prize in 2006 with the opening of The Generation Game. I got an agent and finished the novel. However the novel wasn’t sold and so I wrote another which was runner up in the Harry Bowling Prize. I decided to go it alone and rewrote The Generation Game, entered it for the Luke Bitmead Bursary and it won in January this year. It was amazing to finally see my novel published this summer. I have just signed with a new agent and we are very excited about working together on This Holey Life.

Your latest novel, The Generation Game has recently been released. Can you tell us a little about it?

It’s set largely between in a sweet shop in Torquay and spans four decades from 1965 to 2005. Philippa is 40 and gives birth to a daughter. She has had a quirky and at times traumatic life and is worried she will be a bad mother. So she tells her baby the story of her life to help make sense of it. The novel should particularly appeal to those who grew up in that period as the story is set against a backdrop of national events like the Silver Jubilee and the miners’ strike, with references.

To read more, click here.