I’m delighted to welcome Carol Cooper today to talk about her writing. I met Carol about four years ago soon after I published my first novel. Carol is a multi-talented individual who as well as being a successful novelist, is a medical doctor, a graduate of Newnham, Cambridge and is the Sun’s medical correspondent. Her own blog Pills and Pillowtalk is hilarious. After a dozen non-fiction books, including an award-winning textbook of medicine, she turned to fiction with her debut novel. One Night at the Jacaranda follows the fortunes of a motley group of 30-somethings who, looking for love, end up finding themselves. Her second novel Hampstead Fever focuses on six North Londoners whose emotions boil over in the summer heat. She is now working on a third novel. I’ve read them both and they’re very funny – yet also poignant.

So, Carol, tell us about yourself – where do you live and what do you do when you’re not writing?

When I’m not writing, I’m either doctoring or doing medical journalism. These days, I mostly teach medical students instead of seeing patients. Whatever I’m up to, I’m studying people and often getting ideas for stories. Being observant is part of my medical training and I’m always curious to know what makes people tick. My three sons have all fled the nest. I now share my home with my husband Jeremy and my lovely ginger cat Mishmish. Her name means apricot in Arabic. I’m lucky to live in both Hampstead (north London) and in Cambridge. Both places are steeped in history and have something beautiful to show around every corner.

Can you give us a brief picture of your personal journey as a writer?

I always wanted to be an author. As a child, I wrote stories about witches smoking in bed (it was always a grisly end). My first published books some twenty years ago were on health at work and on raising children, especially twins, and they were a fusion of my professional expertise and my personal experience. I’ve also co-authored two textbooks of general practice with colleagues from Imperial College, London, where I teach. After this string of non-fiction books, it seemed high time to write the novels that were bursting to get out. Like a lot of authors, I had a few false starts until I found my writing voice. One Night at the Jacaranda came out at the end of 2013, and Hampstead Fever followed in 2016.

**Mark Twain said “Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.” – How much of your own fiction is based on truth?**

I love Mark Twain. He had a knack for saying what seems perfectly evident, yet nobody else thought of it. My own fiction is based on truth in that I try to write what I know about. That’s why you’ll find a stressed family doctor, a struggling journalist, a single mother, and so on in my novels. It adds authenticity, though it’s not the same as transplanting actual people and events into fiction. Sadly, putting real patients (or colleagues) in novels is taboo, no matter how characterful they may be. While my fiction may be lifelike, it’s entirely imaginary.

Tell me about your latest book and why we should all buy it.

My novel Hampstead Fever focuses on six Londoners approaching forty. Each of them is grappling with relationships, work problems, unruly kids, ageing parents, and so on. Their stories are intertwined, as in the film Love, Actually, but in Hampstead one particularly hot summer. I’m not going to suggest everyone should read it, since we all have different tastes in books. However, Hampstead Fever was picked up by WH Smith for a prestigious front-of-store promo in their travel shops, where it did pretty well. If you enjoy a contemporary and at times racy read, then it could be for you.

What comes first – location, plot, characters?

For me, it’s always the location, closely followed by the characters. I have an idea of where the plot will go, but, once I start writing, the characters develop lives of their own and veer off in unforeseen directions. I end up letting them do their own thing, whether it’s learning Spanish, refusing to die, or jumping into bed with the wrong people.

**Anthony Burgess once said “Literature is all, or mostly, about sex”. How true is that of your books?**

Sex is at the heart of most personal relationships, so I tend to agree. While I don’t write erotica, I do include sex scenes because they can convey so much. Sex tells the reader a lot about the characters’ motives, the balance of power in a relationship, and the trust – or lack of it – between the characters. It can also be comical.

Who or what has been the greatest help to you as a writer?

Many people have helped me on my path as a writer, but one person stands out. I once went on a fiction-writing weekend in Norfolk, where there were only about six of us, and the legendary Ruth Rendell was the tutor. It’s thanks to her encouragement that I kept going. (Gosh that must have been an amazing experience! –C)

What has been the hardest thing for you to overcome in becoming an author?

Lack of time and energy. Writing novels has to be slotted in alongside other work, and sometimes at the same time as writing a non-fiction book. Hampstead Fever and General Practice Cases at a Glance were even published on the same day.

What are you working on now?

The Girls from Alexandria is a novel that goes back in time to Alexandria in the 1950s. The period is as important as the location, as this is the tail end of a cosmopolitan Egypt that no longer exists. The principal character Nadia, who’s now seventy, is trying to discover what happened to her sister years ago. As with my other novels, there will be an important medical thread though it’s far from being the whole story. (Can’t wait to read that! – Clare)