Here’s a bit about me:

I am an ex-journalist, BBC TV producer and creative writing lecturer, now full-time novelist and poet. I was born in London and have been writing stories and poems since I was six. My novel ‘The Prisoner’s Wife’ was published in March 2020, in the first Covid lockdown. (Yes, all the bookshops were closed!) It has been published in Australia, New Zealand, S.Africa, USA, Canada, Mexico, Spain, France, Italy, the Czech republic, Poland, Portugal, Holland, and Belgium, with Sri Lanka still to come. My newest, ‘Acts of Love and War’ was out in hardback in the UK in June 2022, and in Canada and the USA in August 2022 with Spanish and Czech editions to follow. What’s more, my novels are published by Penguin Random House. Astonishing.

I have several unpublished novels under the bed, so how did I get to this amazing place of having novels published all around the world? After an English degree at Cardiff University I became a newspaper reporter, moving to BBC TV as an historical documentary writer / producer / director. I have published six poetry collections in the UK under my married name of Maggie Butt. My poetry website is: www.maggiebutt.co.uk.

The principal theme which recurs in my work is the strength and courage of women in adversity. I am drawn to stories which take place in wartime because because of my parents’ experience in the second world war. My dad was a prisoner of war and my mum was a nurse. I think I get my abhorrence of war from the waste of life they witnessed. War shows the human race at its worst, and yet can also bring out the best of it.

I have been married since 1982, and when our daughters were born I left the BBC and began teaching creative writing at Middlesex University, where I stayed for 30 years. It was a huge delight and privilege to foster the writing of others. In addition to writing and teaching, I have also been a fellow of the Royal Literary Fund and Chair of the UK’s National Association of Writers in Education. In 2017 I organised an 8 hour poetry marathon which raised over £14,000 for a refugee charity, I have organised fundraising events for Poets for the Planet and am a member of PoetsforUkraine.

My husband and I live in north London close to our two lovely grown-up daughters and new grand-daughter. We frequently visit Whitstable in Kent where I enjoy swimming in the sea (weather permitting!) and beach-side walks. I do yoga every morning. Anywhere and everywhere I’m either reading or writing.