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14<br />
Hometown Girl<br />
by Nicola Gray<br />
Putting pen to paper or rather<br />
fingertips to keyboard, when<br />
there’s a blank page staring<br />
back at you, can be a daunting<br />
experience at the best of times. So,<br />
to imagine selling 6 million books<br />
worldwide and racking up more<br />
than 4 million library lends in the<br />
UK alone, must be something that<br />
dreams are made of.<br />
This just happens to be reality<br />
for <strong>St</strong> <strong>Helens</strong>-born author,<br />
Carole Matthews and I for one<br />
want to know more! Carole is an<br />
internationally bestselling author<br />
of 34 hugely successful romantic comedy novels. Her<br />
unique sense of humour has won her legions of fans and<br />
she can count places on the Sunday Times and USA Today<br />
bestseller lists among her accolades.<br />
Carole’s lasting memory of <strong>St</strong> <strong>Helens</strong> was the family home<br />
on Ecclesfield Road in Eccleston. Carole tells me, “I was an<br />
only child and that’s when my love of books started. I was<br />
never happier than when I was reading.” Although she<br />
always dreamed of being a teacher, an air traffic controller,<br />
a travel guide or a hairdresser – writer never featured once!<br />
Carole continues, “I have vivid memories of my childhood<br />
and in particular the fields behind the house, now playing<br />
fields, used to be farmers’ fields and everyone – including<br />
the children – used to pick peas and potatoes in the<br />
summer. I had lovely friends and a freedom that I don’t<br />
think kids today enjoy as much.”<br />
<strong>St</strong> Theresa’s Primary School in Knowsley Road is where<br />
Carole’s education started and she later moved to the<br />
brand-new <strong>St</strong> Julie’s Primary School on Brooklands Road,<br />
when it opened. Carole continued, “I have incredibly<br />
good memories of my years there and had strong women<br />
teachers in Mrs Whittle and Mrs Sudworth. My secondary<br />
school was Notre Dame High School – long before it<br />
became De La Salle.<br />
“I found those school years<br />
difficult but, again, I was blessed<br />
with incredibly good friends<br />
who I’m still in touch with.<br />
My school reports generally<br />
said something like ‘if only<br />
Carole would stop talking/<br />
daydreaming she might make<br />
something of herself.’ It’s kind of<br />
worked out okay in the end.”<br />
Writing novels wasn’t always on<br />
the agenda for Carole, her first<br />
job came working as a shop<br />
assistant, she tells me, “I worked<br />
in a shop called Come and Save<br />
in Cambridge Road and we lived in a flat above it. I also had<br />
a job in a sweet shop on a Sunday afternoon in Boundary<br />
Road. Truth be known, I wanted to be a journalist, but<br />
didn’t want to go to university and thought that I would<br />
have to. I ended up doing that eventually but in a very<br />
round about fashion. I think all the jobs I’ve done have led<br />
to me being an author – which is absolutely what I love.”<br />
Carole left education at the age of eighteen and secured<br />
a job in London. She recalls, “There was little work in <strong>St</strong><br />
<strong>Helens</strong> at the time and I got a government grant to find<br />
work out of the area. I’d completed a secretarial course<br />
in sixth form and became a secretary at the University<br />
of London. I moved to Hemel Hempstead in<br />
Hertfordshire which I absolutely loved and<br />
commuted daily into the city. It was a<br />
fabulous first job and thought I was quite<br />
the little miss about town.” Carole added, “I<br />
now live-in sunny Milton Keynes,<br />
it’s a much-maligned place,<br />
but I love it!”<br />
<strong>St</strong> <strong>Helens</strong><br />
though has<br />
always been<br />
home, her
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