Mary Williams

I've written poetry and fiction for as long as I can remember.  I gained an MA at Edge Hill University College a while back, which gave me an excuse to write even more.
I set up a writers' group in my home town ten years ago, after we moved here, and worked part-time as a psychotherapist, and then was lucky enough to be commissioned to write two self-help books, which put a bit of money in the pot. On the strength of this I published two dark fiction novels, THE POISON GARDEN OF DORELIA JONES and THE MARSH PEOPLE and a number of short stories and poetry, and most recently LOSING IT, an account of Jane, imprisoned for killing her children while the balance of her mind was disturbed,  because I feel that people like Jane are not really understood or cared about by society. It's a controversial subject perhaps, but after meeting staff from a special hospital, it was a story I wanted to tell. It is, however, fiction.
I've worked as a teacher, fostermother, market trader, counsellor and - whisper it - sex therapist. I gave up working full time when I had breast cancer seven years ago, and writing is what I do now, pretty much full time. Life is precious!
I recently won a major poetry prize. The next goal for me is to publish a collection, which I'm putting together at the moment. I live with my first and only husband in a quirky little cottage with a well under the floor and try to keep the garden from invading the house.