Jo Platt was born in Liverpool in 1968 and, via the extremely winding route of rural Wiltshire, London, Seattle and St Albans, she is now happily settled in Bristol with her husband and two daughters. She studied English at King’s College London before going on to work in the City for ten years. In 2000 she escaped into motherhood and part-time employment, first as an assistant teacher in a Seattle pre-school and then was a Bristol-based secretary to her husband.
What inspire you to write a book?
My inspiration comes from friends, family, strangers in the street, stories that I’m told, or overhear – I’m a dreadful eavesdropper. The list of influences and inspirations is pretty endless really!
Do you write full time? if yes, is it tiring to write day in day out?
I supposedly write full-time, although a time and motion study would probably reveal that a fair percentage of my working day is lost to ‘staring from the window’ and ‘eating cake’.
Which of the book that the story plot touches you the most and the hardest for you to let go?
I love exploring friendships: how they start, how they develop and, in the case of my latest book Working It Out, how they end. As I write, the characters and their situations become very real to me and it can feel quite a wrench to say goodbye to them and move onto the next book.
Do you read other author’s book specifically from the same industry as you?
I’d describe my reading choices as eclectic! I don’t restrict myself to any one particular genre.
Which part of the writing process that you find it hardest to go thru i.e. from writing to the published book?
My Sanctuary 