Victoria Hinton's Blog

A summer evening’s chance encounter throws together two people of opposite social class who, despite a natural mutual attraction, should never have met.

Kathryn Fitzpatrick is a lady, the daughter of a much-respected gentleman. The Fitzpatricks are loved and revered throughout English society, yet Kathryn has never conformed. She is impulsive, ruled by her heart.

When she meets Duncan Brown, a lowly gardener on her father’s estate, a special love is ignited. He understands and admires her. Before long an affair develops; a forbidden affair of love, passion and lust, totally unacceptable to Kathryn’s family. Her life begins to spiral out of control.

Her family deem her capricious ways to be a burden and her mother sees marriage as the only solution. Her elder brother Richard arranges for her to marry Mr Jonathan Lockland, a powerful gentleman of strong will who is adored by many. He seems perfect to keep Kathryn in check.

Unspeakable secrets, hidden scandals, blackmail and dark passions convolute and Kathryn’s life is manipulated for selfish gain. Kathryn struggles to find some happiness. Yet when Richard is found dying he sends for Kathryn and discloses how she has been deceived.

Now she must fight for the man she deeply loves, and tell him all, but it is not an easy journey.

During my childhood I was always obsessed with stories and books. Living on a council estate in Liverpool, I found them to be a great means of escape for me. I would spend hours and hours reading and if I was not reading I would be sat at my mum’s computer typing away, lost in a world of the characters I was creating. I've never not written. As soon as i knew what a story was i have always made up my own. It's almost on ocd i have :)

I soon realised that I was most happy when writing. I seemed unable to stop and the ideas flowed very easily from my mind. I knew from a very young age it was my passion and what I wanted to spend my life doing; creating stories for others to read.

As I got older I discovered Jane Austin and Charlotte Bronte. I was consumed by their stories and the era in which they wrote. It was such a rich time in history with many wonderful settings for stories to grow and develop. So, at the age of sixteen, I began work on Forbidden.

I attended Liverpool John Moore’s University after leaving college and took my degree in “Imaginative Writing”. It helped my writing skills grow and develop significantly. Yet I felt that in order for me to become a better writer I needed to experience life, people and places, too. So, I travelled and worked in different countries. I met all kinds of people and saw many wonderful places. This, more than anything, inspired me to want to write even more. Witnessing so much of what the world has to offer, I realised that there were so many stories and so many characters waiting to be developed.

For ten years I worked on Forbidden. I wrote many different versions yet never felt it was good enough. That is until I came back to Liverpool and felt the time was right to bring my story and ideas to life and complete the work.

So finally it is finished and published and it has been one of the best experiances of my life. It's a dream come true. Now i am working on my second one and loving writing more than ever.

I hope anyone who reads my work enjoys reading it as much as i enjoy writing it.