The novelist next door.

Born in Manchester, Anne Attias lived in Italy, Greece and Israel before returning home to raise her two sons. She began her career as a reporter for the local press and went on to work in marketing, media, housing and local government before retiring to write her first book, The Paradise Scheme.

That first novel had quietly waited a long time. It was originally written in 1986 as a script, then sealed in a brown folder at the back of a wardrobe, where it remained until 2018 — at which point it was published by i2i Publishing and was well received. Sixteen novels have followed, with a seventeenth, Alternative Universe, due next.

The books cover wildly different territory. Family saga (Lifetimes, Allbrite, Consequences). A ghost story (Timespan). A whodunnit (The Great Clock Disappearance). Thrillers (Prototype, Scam Wars). A pandemic novel (Unprecedented Times). A love story rooted in women’s equality (Attainment). A reversal of the rags-to-riches story (Tenacity). What links them is not a genre but a habit: Anne writes about ordinary people, and the contemporary things happening to them.

When she is not writing, Anne keeps a deliberately full life: art classes, keeping fit, swimming, reading, volunteering and — most of all — helping to look after her four grandchildren. She is a strong believer in making the most of one’s life, and the books reflect that. Each one is, in its own way, an argument for paying attention.