KVNELLY Profile

Having been raised by a single mother, in a dreary housing estate in the North East of England, I spent my childhood shaking a torch that was always on the blink and squinting at a book under my duvet. While my friends fantasized about being a pop star, or playing football for Newcastle United, I visualized myself as the next Enid Blyton, transporting people to lands faraway from reality. After leaving school aged sixteen, I embarked on a search for employment and found myself bidding on rare stamps and coins for overseas customers at a local auctioneering company. Much as I enjoyed spending other people’s money on dusty collectable items, I decided to broaden my horizons after a couple of years and I packed my bags and headed to London, this time with a thriller stuffed in my suitcase rather than The Famous Five. A lengthy career within Information Technology and the recruitment sector sidetracked me until 2007, when I resigned from a Regional Director post on the corporate treadmill. I disappeared into the African third world to pursue a career in full-time writing and I am now seeking representation for my first novel, Pinstripe.