Nikki Copleston

Readers often ask what inspires me to write, and I have to confess that I’m not really sure. Certain places capture my imagination – houses I visited as a child, favourite towns or country villages. But the setting isn’t enough in itself. Every story needs an idea at the heart of it, a “what if” question that the rest of the story has to answer. For instance, for a competition last year, the theme