TUESDAY TALK WELCOMES NICKY WELLS AS SHE TALKS ABOUT HER SWITCH FROM WRITING ROMANCE TO THRILLERS AND HER ULTIMATE – AND RATHER CHILLY -HOLIDAY DESTINATION

Good morning Nicky and welcome. Can I start, as always, by asking you a little about yourself?

Good morning, Jo! It’s lovely to be here, thank you for inviting me. I’m honoured!! So, you want to know something about me? Hm. Where to start? I was blonde once; now I’m most probably a different colour, but underneath all that lovely red, you’d never know. I am German by birth, but I’ve lived in the UK most of my life (and apparently, I shall be allowed to continue to do so: wish me luck!). I am terminally afraid of wasps. I have a fabulous, wicked sense of humour although I may be slightly slow ‘getting’ it; sometimes. Ha! And I was privileged to have my favourite rock band play at my wedding. On that subject, I have a gorgeous, singing and guitar-playing husband and two growing-way-too-fast boys.

When did you first decide you wanted to write and how did you begin that journey?

Truthfully, I’ve always wanted to write; but this is such a cheesy answer that I don’t often give it. I started writing in earnest when I quit my business consultancy job a few months before the birth of my first baby; that would be around twelve years ago. All of a sudden, I had all this time on my hands, and I decided that I would write that book. ‘That book’ turned out to be Sophie’s Turn, even if it took about five years to get it out in book format. And my writing obsession turned out to be fairly unstoppable because I’ve written (almost) ten books altogether now and published eight of them.

Although your early novels had a rock music influence your last book Dead Hope was totally different – a suspenseful crime novel with romance woven through it. Have you now said goodbye to rock romances?

That’s a great question. The answer is: sort of yes, sort of no. You know how much I love my rock music and how much I adore certain rock stars. That obsession is alive and well and not about to desert me. Which means there are plenty more rock romances in me just waiting to be written. However, somehow—somehow, I got sidetracked. I wanted to try something new, something different, to stretch my literary wings and see if I could pull it off. It appears that I’ve unleashed a genie that now refuses to go back in the bottle as the ideas for thrillers are coming thick and fast. I’ve always been a great believer in following wherever my inspiration takes me, so for the time being, that’s my direction.

If money were no object where would your ultimate holiday destination be?

No object? No object whatsoever? Iceland. The arctic circle, snow and ice and Northern Lights and all.

Are you able to tell us a little about what you are working on at the moment?

At the moment, I’m deeply enthralled by my third thriller which tells the story of a woman in her early thirties who finds her life—husband, daughter, career and everything—cruelly and inexplicably taken out from under her. She doesn’t know why, but she intends to find out. Because otherwise… well otherwise, she has nothing.

6And lastly, you’ve been invited to take part in I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. Choose four celebrities you would most like to share the jungle with you and why

Joey Tempest—because that’s been my dream since I was fourteen. And because he’s got the most amazing voice and he’s an all-round genius.

Paul Hollywood—because then I’d never run out of yummy jungle cakes.

Michael McIntyre—because we’d never run out of laughs.

And Cameron Diaz—because obviously I’d need a female sidekick. LOL!