Best seller Susan Lewis tells Caroline Lindsay why fear of the unknown is a driving force in her writing...

Despite being expelled from boarding school aged 14, Susan Lewis managed to work her way into local TV at 16, and by the time she was 22 she had moved to Thames TV where she trained to become a production assistant.

“I worked mostly on drama and began writing my first novel while on The Bill,” says Susan.

“When my third book was published, I became a full-time writer and moved to the South of France.”

Her latest book, My Lies, Your Lies, is set on the north coast of Devon and is about a cult writer who engages a much younger ghostwriter to help with a memoir. “It’s full of mind games and twists and turns that tie the ghostwriter up in knots over a story concerning a 15-year-old girl and her music teacher,” Susan explains.

“I’m not sure what inspired it, it’s simply a book I’ve always wanted to write perhaps without really knowing what it was going to be.

“I loved the journey, although I was often as afraid of the cult writer as I was of it all going wrong,” she smiles.

“I’m drawn to telling stories that intrigue and challenge on many different levels.

“Fear of the unknown is often the driving force in a book, as it’s something we all feel in our own lives.

“Fear of losing someone, of dying, of wrongful imprisonment, of revenge, of failing – there are so many different types of fear and many of them come into play during the course of a novel,” she continues.

“It’s fascinating to me to explore how I, or someone else, might respond to unforeseen and even catastrophic twists of fate, or to random circumstances that defy explanation.”

Susan writes for around seven hours a day, at least six days a week, “always in my study at home with my dogs close by and a calming view over the fields to stare at when I’m stuck,” she says.

“At six, or thereabouts, a lovely glass of wine usually joins us and then things really get going.”

Inspiration comes from so many sources that Susan finds it difficult to name them all.

“The news, people, films, books, my stepsons, places we’ve visited, basically the whole of life is inspiring in hundreds of different ways,” she smiles.

“I never know what’s going to inspire me into the creating of a story and characters – it just happens, or clicks, or carries me away with some kind of irresistible potential.

“I love it when the characters just won’t stop talking. They wake me up at night, come on walks with me, eat meals with me, they even come into the shower with me, and believe me, it can get very crowded at times,” says Susan.

“It doesn’t happen with every book, but when it does it’s the most uplifting and rewarding part of being a writer, because when the characters are so firmly on board you can feel sure that the story is in safe hands.”

My Lies, Your Lies by Susan Lewis is published by HarperCollins on April 16, £12.99.