PR: My guest today is the novelist Laura Reddington, whose novel, The Lost Dream was an international best-seller. Laura, did you always want to write?
L: I've always been interested in books. I always thought it would be wonderful to be a writer and this was an ambition.
PR: How did you start writing?
L: Well, my first thought was that I needed to make a living, so I tried romantic fiction — without success, though. I thought it would be easy money.
PR: How did you get the idea for your book?
L: I was looking through my books one day when I found the story of a man who thought he'd found a new planet. I realised this was going on at about the same time as a famous murder case in London. So I thought I could mix the two stories together to make a sort of a detective novel.
PR: How long did it take you to write the book?
L: Well, that book took two years to write. I know some people can sit down and just write, and until they've finished they don't know how it will end. But for me, it's all about planning, when I worked out all the details, I concentrate on the actual writing.