:00:00. > :00:08.busier. It is time now for this week's Meet
:00:09. > :00:12.The Author with Nick Higham. Dorothy Koomson writes what she
:00:13. > :00:15.calls emotional thrillers, novels which combine an emphasis on
:00:16. > :00:23.relationships which you expect from commercial women's fiction, with the
:00:24. > :00:28.injured `` intricate plotting of darker thrillers. Her latest book is
:00:29. > :00:35.The Flavours Of Love. It is about a woman whose life is turned upside
:00:36. > :00:41.down after her husband is murdered. Dorothy Koomson, your heroine
:00:42. > :00:45.Saffron at the start of this book is in not a great place really. Her
:00:46. > :00:50.husband has been murdered 18 months before. She discovers that her
:00:51. > :00:55.14`year`old daughter is pregnant and not long after the book starts she
:00:56. > :00:59.also finds she has a stalker who writes her threatening letters. You
:01:00. > :01:06.really like putting your heroine is through the mill, don't you? I do, I
:01:07. > :01:10.think it is great. I like putting people who are already in a fragile
:01:11. > :01:15.place like Saffron is, under more pressure to see how they can stand
:01:16. > :01:18.it to see if they do or they don't. She does not a lot of the time.
:01:19. > :01:24.Several of your recent books have these dark themes but you did not
:01:25. > :01:34.start out writing books like that. They were much sunnier. The first
:01:35. > :01:40.two books were quite jolly. Why the change? My third book, my Best
:01:41. > :01:46.friend 's girl, I decided to deal with the story of a woman whose best
:01:47. > :01:50.friend dies. Her best friend had a one night stand with her fiance and
:01:51. > :01:55.got pregnant by him and she did not find that for three years. She left
:01:56. > :02:00.and two years later she hears from her best friend saying she is dying
:02:01. > :02:04.and asking her to adopt her child. I wanted to deal with something which
:02:05. > :02:08.was a difficult subject and put myself and the reader in a situation
:02:09. > :02:13.where you are torn about what to do. From then onwards it became easier,
:02:14. > :02:19.not easier, more interesting I suppose, to write about these tough
:02:20. > :02:22.subjects. Saffron in this book is under tremendous pressure. Most of
:02:23. > :02:28.the time she's not responding well to it. Yes, she is under immense
:02:29. > :02:34.pressure. She knows something about who killed her husband but she does
:02:35. > :02:37.not tell the police. I am not giving anything away because that is the
:02:38. > :02:41.start of the book, a prologue between her and her daughter who
:02:42. > :02:45.knows something and you do not know what they know all why they will not
:02:46. > :02:48.go to the police. Because of that, she is stuck when she starts
:02:49. > :02:54.receiving letters and all the other things which happen in her life. She
:02:55. > :02:58.is under immense pressure. When I am writing the book I do wonder how I
:02:59. > :03:02.would put up with a situation and how I would fare in a situation and
:03:03. > :03:07.how ordinary people put up with these situations. People across the
:03:08. > :03:11.world do find themselves in situations, not too similar to
:03:12. > :03:16.Saffron, but traumatic situations or dealing with the aftermath of a
:03:17. > :03:20.traumatic situation. A couple of years ago you had the experience of
:03:21. > :03:25.seeing one of your books adapted for television, The Ice Cream Girls,
:03:26. > :03:35.which was adapted as a three parter by ITV. Being back here, terrified.
:03:36. > :03:42.It happened 17 years ago. It is over. No one remembers. But I do. It
:03:43. > :03:50.is all coming back. Just think about mum, she needs us. These callous
:03:51. > :03:54.young women stabbed him 11 times... Many authors are delighted when
:03:55. > :03:59.their stuff is picked up and dramatised. I'm sure you were also
:04:00. > :04:05.pleased but it was not an entirely happy experience, was it, because
:04:06. > :04:07.what hit the screen was very different in several absolutely
:04:08. > :04:15.fundamental respects to what you had written? Yes, I think they saw my
:04:16. > :04:20.story as a nice idea of how they thought domestic abuse and violence
:04:21. > :04:25.played out and also how relationships between young girls
:04:26. > :04:30.and older men played out and decided I was not correct so they did their
:04:31. > :04:35.version of my story. A key part of your book was the idea that a young
:04:36. > :04:42.girl who was abused by an older man, first was groomed by him, it is
:04:43. > :04:46.the man's fault which brings that about. Yes. But what happened in the
:04:47. > :04:53.adaptation is she as it were led him on. Even if she did lead him on, I
:04:54. > :04:58.applaud that phrase, he is an adult and he could say no, that did not
:04:59. > :05:05.happen in the TV version `` I applaud that phrase. You have done a
:05:06. > :05:12.lot of research on these abusive relationships and that was ignored
:05:13. > :05:20.on television. The No I have read a lot on the subject and when I came
:05:21. > :05:25.to write the book originally... I thought I had an idea of what
:05:26. > :05:29.domestic abuse was about. As I discovered, as I was researching,
:05:30. > :05:35.what I thought I knew was nothing like the reality. Domestic violence
:05:36. > :05:38.in a physical sense does not happen without emotional abuse and
:05:39. > :05:45.manipulation. One of the things I wanted to get across in the book was
:05:46. > :05:49.it is fundamental, the emotional abuse and emotional manipulation is
:05:50. > :05:55.fundamental to a domestic violence situation occurring. The other thing
:05:56. > :05:59.I wanted to get across when I was writing The Ice Cream Girls and my
:06:00. > :06:05.other books is it could happen to you. You do not necessarily have to
:06:06. > :06:15.come from a single`parent family, be working class and, a lot of what I
:06:16. > :06:18.felt with The Ice Cream Girls. In my book both girls are from 2`parent
:06:19. > :06:24.families and they are both nice girls. The main crop of the story
:06:25. > :06:30.was not knowing which one had killed the teacher, Marcus, because they
:06:31. > :06:36.were both people you felt you knew or you could be. I think that was
:06:37. > :06:44.ignored in the TV version as well. What do you want readers to take
:06:45. > :06:48.away from your books? I want them to enjoy the story, maybe find out
:06:49. > :06:52.something new about a subject they did not know about. A lot of the
:06:53. > :06:56.time when I start a book I have an idea what the subject is about and
:06:57. > :07:00.every time I have been proved wrong. It has shown me that I know nothing
:07:01. > :07:05.and I need to talk to people and research as much as possible. You
:07:06. > :07:09.started as a journalist and there is still an element of the journalist
:07:10. > :07:17.in you, finding things out? I love that. I have always been interested
:07:18. > :07:19.in talking to people and eavesdropping. The other day there
:07:20. > :07:22.was a woman who had a fantastic conversation, it was one`sided, I
:07:23. > :07:29.was listening to it all and thinking, that could be good in
:07:30. > :07:33.books. Taking surreptitious notes? She saw me writing things down! I
:07:34. > :07:38.love talking and eavesdropping and finding things out. Before I became
:07:39. > :07:43.a journalist that was part of my personality I think. And you aim to
:07:44. > :07:49.route your books firmly in real life? Yes, at the moment. I might
:07:50. > :07:55.decide to fiction at some point, she says randomly! I can't wait! Dorothy
:07:56. > :08:02.Koomson, thank you very much. Thank you.
:08:03. > :08:09.Hello, and up and down spell of weather coming as we approach the
:08:10. > :08:12.weekend. It is windy out there across the northern part of the
:08:13. > :08:13.country. Some showers