Alison Bruce

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Countdown with ...

Alison Bruce

Alison Bruce has worked in all kinds of jobs, from admin to electro-plating and from DJ-ing to IT management. She didn't always plan to become a full-time novelist but can't remember a time in her adult life when she wasn't carrying a notebook and pen and jotting down her latest ideas.

One day she hit on an idea that grabbed her so strongly that she decided to tackle a full-length novel. It was whilst working on this first book that she realised she needed a police character and DC Gary Goodhew was born. Alison moved to the Cambridge area in 1998 and decided to make it the backdrop for the books.

Alison has also written two non-fiction books, Cambridgeshire Murders and The Billington, Victorian Executioner, both published by the History Press.

She’s a fan of vintage clothes and the rockabilly music scene, of Cambridge and Hawaii, of architecture and old cars.

Interviewed 28 May 2016

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

WARNING: I’ve cheated
Head-scratching, brain-wracking
Word-counting, tension-mounting,
Plot-twisting, uplifting,
Reach-the-end, pressing-send,
Publication, jubilation. (and repeat annually)

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

An Imperial typewriter,
A bookcase,
A silver birch,
Sindy (he’s one of our cats),
The moon,
A china clown,
A map of Cambridge
A letterpress tray
A magnifying glass

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

Cheese and Marmite on toast.

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

Chuck and Sarah Bartowski
Harlan Coben and Ian Rankin
My grandmother
Professor David Canter
Roy Orbison

Can this be seven separate nights out please, not one big and slightly random party booking?

Six things you can't live without ...

My children – that’s two
A pen and paper
Music
Numbers

Five favourite words ...

Epitode – my daughter invented it, I’d like to see it in a dictionary, it means when two things are usually a matching size but aren’t. For example: eye epitode, when one eye is bigger than the other, or hand epitode, or wheel epitode ... Apparently a word needs to be used in three publications to get in the dictionary… Anyone else up for using it?

Aloha – it means hello, goodbye and love. Handy but potentially confusing.

Qi – A Scrabble life-saver.

The – It appeared 6681 times in my last book so I’m obviously keen on it.

Incision – some words are great but this one really cuts it.

Four places you'd run away to ...

Hawaii
The cemetery
My writing shed
Bed

Three books you've bought recently ...

The Girl in the Red Coat – Kate Hamer
The Widow – Fiona Barton
First One Missing – Tammy Cohen

Two things that make you rant ...

People who say that you spoil a child by picking it up and cuddling it.
People who tailgate.

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

Don’t try to climb onto a stage with no steps when the audience is large and you’re wearing a very tight skirt.