Kathleen Whyman is an author, a journalist, a knackered mum and an Espresso Martini fan. These may be linked.

Kathleen wrote her first novel at the age of ten. Despite the accompanying illustrations, The Ghost of Cripple Creek was rejected, as were the short stories she submitted to Jackie magazine in her teens (probably for the best), but this didn't deter her from a life of writing.

Working as a magazine journalist, Kathleen longed to be a novelist, but got slightly side-tracked over the years by work, children and Mad Men box sets. It was her daughter's words - 'Stop talking about writing a book and just write one' - that gave her the push she needed to enrol on a writing course with Jill Dawson and get on with it.

Kathleen's debut novel, Wife Support System, was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Association's Joan Hessayon Award 2020 and the Romance Comedy Novel of the Year 2021. Her novel Second Wife Syndrome was shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print prize 2020 in the unpublished comic novel category.

Kathleen lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and two daughters - one of whom is expecting 10 per cent of any profits.