Nicky came second in a short story competition when she was twenty years old. The prize was a brown typewriter called The Underdog 2000 and it put her off writing for the next three decades.
Having married and moved to the country, the intervening years were taken up with children, dogs, ponies and chickens, not to mention hamsters, stick insects and goldfish, plus a host of wildlife that somehow found its way into the kitchen: bats, frogs, slugs, blackbirds, sparrows and a hawk.
Later, to while away the hours, whilst the children did their homework, Nicola took an Open University degree in Humanities and in 2007, she graduated with a 2:1, aged 50.
Her children grew up and moved to London, leaving her to rattle around a house near Stratford upon Avon with her partner, Myles, where they enjoy gardening and playing at being Shakespeare buffs.
In the hope that people would like to read something not too taxing, that might also make them laugh, Nicky took to her computer (times have changed and technology is much friendlier now). She writes poetry and short stories. The Weight of Death is her debut novel.
