Living in a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the mid-1970s, she called
herself "an ordinary housewife" with "a house and a husband and a
garden and a cat to love and look after."
As far back as I can remember I have written poems and stories, but my professional writing life began in 1954. I started my first novel, "Madam, Will You Talk?" in 1952, with no intention of publishing it, but my husband persuaded me to send it away, and it was accepted. Before this I had had literary articles and poems published, but had never thought of publishing stories.
