Growing up in a dysfunctional family, I witnessed a lot of domestic violence and mental abuse. Topics like this were never really spoken about and it wasn’t until I got older and attended a well-known drama class in Islington called The Anna Scher Theatre that I had the idea for A Fool’s Circle, writing it as a gritty, no holds barred short play.

Raising my young daughter and being my father’s full-time Carer, my time was restricted. However, undeterred, I knew I needed to develop the play into a film.

What started out as a short film script soon turned into a full-length feature film script. I could see the characters come to life as soon as I opened my laptop. The harrowing storyline and the honesty of it excited me, and I was now desperate to get a trailer made for the project.

The only problem was I was a skint single mother from Islington. But determined, I wasn’t going to let a little thing like that stop me!

I contacted actor friends of mine, as well as sound technicians, and managed to get a camera crew in place. I had Islington Council loan me their offices, whilst my local Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s sponsored the four-day shoot and fed the cast and crew. They also secured other shoot locations for the trailer.

This was like a dream come true and I had made this all happen without costing me a single penny! My mother was my biggest supporter and helped me so much. Then everything came crashing down.
My mother went into hospital for an operation whilst the trailer was in editing. She never got to see it finished as due to severe complications, she remained in the hospital for two years before passing away in 2016.

I was absolutely devastated. My health also took a dramatic turn for the worse. It took me ages to watch the finished trailer but I drew strength that my mother was so proud I had achieved what I had set out to do.

I knew from that day, there would be no possible way I would be able to go ahead and film a full feature film. I was a single mother with no support network and I was in a very dark place.

My mother taught me to read, she was very much into reading and helped out in my primary school. Teaching the other children in the class. I remember as a child, she would read a lot of Catherine Cookson books. She always said that one day she was going to write a book.

Through my grief I decided, as a tribute to my mother, I would now take this script and turn it into a book. For those writers out there, they know only too well that script writing and writing a book are two completely different things. But once again, I was determined I was going to do this.

I completed my first draft in 2017 and after a lot of re-writing, it was finally finished in August 2018. The book will be launched on what would’ve been my mothers 74th birthday, March 17th 2019.

Apart from having my daughter, writing this book is one of the best things I have ever done in my life. Knowing I did it for my mum and that I was completing her lifelong dream makes it even more special.