Susan Wilkins

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Countdown with ...

Susan Wilkins

Susan Wilkins studied law but never practised – instead she got lured into the world of television. She worked as a researcher on several documentary series before turning to fiction.

Her big break came writing episode four of a brand new BBC hospital drama – Casualty. She went on to have a career in television drama spanning 25 years and over 130 broadcast credits from original drama to soaps to cops and docs to rom-coms.

She wrote for Coronation Street and Eastenders, Casualty and Holby City, Heartbeat, Footballers’ Wives, Dangerfield, Down to Earth, Back-Up and she created and wrote South of the Border, a detective drama of which the BBC made two series.

A major health crisis prompted her retirement from television. Now she lives on the side of a windy cliff, walks by the sea every day and writes crime novels.

Interviewed 24 June 2017

Ten words to sum up your working life to date ...

I get to sit at home and write. What luck!

Nine things you can see from where you're sitting ...

Choppy sea, grey sky, cork board, computer, pen pot, notebooks, file cards, shredder and the old bloke next door putting his bin out.

Eight minutes to prepare a meal. What's it going to be ?

Bits of whatever veg are in the fridge, and not actually mouldy, stir-fried with tamari and noodles and probably cashew nuts.

Seven people you'd like to go for a drink with ...

Jane Austen, John Berger, Steve Jobs, George Eliot, Jon Stewart, my late grandmother Daisy Wilkins, Caitlin Moran.

Six things you can't live without ...

Specs, phone, computer (sadly), hot showers, warm bed, good coffee.

Five favourite words ...

Illicit, eclectic, doolally, foxy, outré.

Four places you'd run away to ...

I’ve already run away to most places on my list, now I prefer to stay home.

Three books you've bought recently ...

The Birdwatcher by William Shaw, The House with No Rooms by Lesley Thomson, The Blood Card by Elly Griffiths

Two things that make you rant ...

Politics. Politicians.

One thing you'd tell your teenage self ...

People say: “I’ll believe it when I see it.” This is not how the universe works. When you believe it, you’ll see it.