Arts and culture

Annie's debut novel, Married to Albert, is about being married to the RAF. The story is told from the perspective of Kate, a girl from York, who likes her job, a drink, and a pilot called Guy. To her delight, Kate ends up marrying Guy. But she soon realises he's already married - to the RAF.

Mirror mirror

Kate's is a life not dissimilar to Annie's own. Annie also lived and worked in York most of her adult life, before marrying an RAF pilot and moving to Wiltshire. She wrote Married to Albert whilst her husband served in foreign conflicts around the world. Annie's first book took a while to emerge, but the urge to write had been bubbling under for quite some time. 

Part of the inspiration for for Annie's first novel came from the frustration that grew out of living in York but not being able to find any fiction about the city. She also wanted a chivalrous element - "everyone loves a man in uniform". And seeing as no-one else was going to do it, Annie decided she would.

Stylish influences

"I'm definitely Jilly Cooper meets Peter Kay", says Annie. "Everyone I see reading my book is laughing out loud! I love humour, I survive the whole of my lonely life with humour. I don't get out much either, that's why the book's really saucy too!".

Annie went along to a writing group at first, to reassure herself she was using the right formula for writing. The irony is, she doesn't actually have a formula: "I put down a skeleton of what I want, and then I can write chapter twenty before chapter one if I like. It's creative freedom!".

Don't stop me now...

Within three weeks of being launched in a local bookshop in Swindon, Married to Albert went national, and within another three months it was on the shelves in Harrods and across Europe. Annie's went up and down the country doing book signings, and the reviews on amazon.com reckoned she's the next Helen Fielding.

With all that demand, it's just as well there's a sequel on its way. But it's not simply a follow up to Kate's story. Annie explains, "I find sequels boring so I took a lateral approach - there's another main character but Kate moves next door, so you find out what happens to her through the new main character".

It's likely we won't have trouble finding out what happens next for Annie either: "I won't stop until I see Married to Albert turned into a film or at least on the small screen. It's like the Soldier Soldier of the Air Force. There's Bravo Two Zero and Tornado Down but there's nothing from the female perspective. And that's exactly what Married to Albert is. It's a really good romp through the RAF".