7 things you should know about Vanessa

1. She relates more to the main character from her children's book, Princess Pincushion (the African Warthog Princess of Rains, Plains and Sky Above), than she does to Lisa Lassiter.

2. Her daughter Milla created the Instagram account @sexteenmagazine which creates awareness around the sexual reality of teenage girls.

3. Vanessa and one of her best friends have an Unfinished Book Club. ‘We'd go out for lunch or sit around a fire and talk about the great next idea for a book.'

4. She doesn't believe in guilty pleasures. ‘If something makes you happy, why apologise for it?'

5. The one piece of advice her book editor Alison Lowry gave her? ‘It's got to have a really twisty-turny satisfying end and hook to it.' (And yes: Plus One has a great twist!)

6. Right now she's halfway through reading The Shepherd’s

Hut by Tim Winton, and has just started Transcription by Kate Atkinson. ‘I love storytellers. I'm not one for the poetic or the overly descriptive. But I'll read anything as long as it's well-written.

7. When she's not reading or writing, she loves a drama series with ‘great dialogue and compelling characters'. Some of her favourites right now are Killing

Eve, Fauda and Happy Valley. But there's also always space for

The Great British Bake Off and Selling Houses Australia!