Ten Things About Me:

1. I lived in Tonbridge in Kent for most of my life, but recently moved to a gorgeous village near Wells and Glastonbury in Somerset where I am bonding with our neighbouring herd of cows and learning various building skills in the renovation of our ancient house.

2. I live with my husband Chris and our two lovely daughters Rain and Jude.

3. We have a Neapolitan Mastiff called Loki, cats Tinkerbell, Rafiki and Lyra, and chickens Ginny and Lavender.

4. My favourites: Red; Kinder Buenos; Sleepy Hollow; Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell; Summer evenings; Family; Christmas; VW Campervan; Gin & diet bitter lemon; Johnny Depp.

5. I spend far too much time wondering what I should do when I grow up.

6. I wrote a book! Be In The Place, a teenage adventure romance set at Glastonbury festival was published by Andersen Press (Random House) in 2005. Since then I have written two more teenage novels which I may polish up and put on the internet one day. I write with my local writers’ group and sometimes post here what I come up with. I completed the NanoWriMo challenge in November 2014 with an alternative history novel for adults and will hopefully have that finished soon.

7. I have a real passion for creating things and gorgeous fabrics and make alternative clothing, costumes, wedding dresses and accessories. The business is called Threads of a Fairytale and I sell online and at a few festivals.

8. I love drawing and crafting and have become a fan of pyrography – heat engraving on wood and leather. I sell personalised unique gifts and art at my Etsy shop called ByHelenHobden.

9. I have far too many hobbies. I’m always running out of audio books; I love painting, but rarely have the time; I enjoy photography, but I wish I knew photoshop better; I have an electric guitar, and can play Celebrity Skin by Hole very slowly; I enjoy wondering round the garden making great plans for it, but can’t keep on top of the weeding; I help the local youth club and amateur dramatics group, and sing with the village choir.

10. I go through phases of ballet, zumba or street dancing to keep fit, or not at all; I love Cornwall, and when I’m not falling off, I can surf on a mini-mal. I was once given a skateboard as a Valentine’s present and got quite good (though not so good that I could drop into a half pipe), but recently have developed a fear of falling off and hurting myself. I’m a purple belt in kickboxing and am learning to do a backflip at gymnastics, as that was my ultimate goal in life when I was thirteen.