Polly Williams (edit name/settings)

I grew up in Oxford, one of four children. In order to escape my three brothers I took to writing in my bedroom, door firmly shut, leaving a legacy of many embarrassingly bad poems.

After studying English at university I was drawn to journalism - a way of gettingpaid to write and adventure and nose around other people’s lives? Irresistible. I created my first job by creating and launching a fashion magazine, Scene (now defunct) and appointing myself as editor. After that I worked at Frank, Punch, You, In Style and wrote for many other publications. Journalism provides brilliant research material for a wannabe novelist. But also much displacement activity.

Eventually, age 31, I got a bit embarrassed saying I was going to write a book one day soon, being the personification of that sketch… First person: ‘I’m writing a book.’ Second person: ‘Neither am I.’ So I started plotting ideas in the evening after work.

Then I got pregnant.

Realising that my dream of writing a novel diminished every time I had to release a button on my jeans, I planned an early maternity leave - six weeks before the baby was due - in which to write. But on my last day at work, the night of my leaving do, my waters broke.

My son Oscar arrived six weeks early, weighing little more than a hardback. Because he was tiny and slept a lot, I wrote, mostly rubbish. My light bulb moment came when I realised I couldn’t find the novel I wanted to read, a novel about the contradictory and messy business of being a new mum in the twenty first century. And so I started The Yummy Mummy. Since then, I’ve been writing fiction full time and feeling rather lucky.

So that’s about the size of me. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Below are a few things I’ve missed out.

Star sign: Scorpio

Favourite Colour: Blue

Current favourite city: New York

Some of the writers I love: Jane Austen, William Boyd, EM Forster, Melissa Bank, Jonathan Franzen, Elizabeth Bishop, Raymond Carver, Oscar Wilde, TS Eliot, Hari Kunzru, William Boyd…

Things I miss from my old pre-parent life: sleep, dancing until dawn, spontaneous travel, wearing cashmere around the house, life being about me.

Things I love about being a mum: the sleepy smell of my son in the morning, the way he says, ‘yes, not really’, life no longer just being about me.

Things that keep me awake at night: ecological apocalypse, bad reviews, bad cover designs, terrorists

Things I love about being a novelist: Being paid to make things up. Feeling vaguely vindicated. Not having to take the Tube to work every morning.