Leigh’s Scribblings

First and foremost: I am passionate about writing. My burning ambition is to make it into print and become a full-time author – though at present my job as legal secretary, to a divorce lawyer, pays the bills.

I have completed three novels: Classmates, a nostalgia-fest set in the 80s (great fun to write); All the Rage, the story of Chantal, Faith and Justine, alias the eponymous All the Rage, who hope to become Willenhall’s answer to the Sugababes (don’t laugh); and Gap Year, which centres around Emily Smeed and her relationship with a Water Mitty character by the name of ‘Dominic’ – but also features a few of the eccentric characters who populate Emily’s leafy, gossipy home village of Lower Bratchley, a fictional place but based on a certain village in which I grew up.

I had begun a fourth, The Four Matthews, a ‘walking’ novel featuring eight folks who undertake a 10-day, 40-mile footslog from Alveley in Shropshire (the venue of my wonderful wedding) to Tissington in the Peak District, taking in ‘The Four Matthews’ – four (fictitious) hills set at equidistant intervals along the route – on the way.

I put this on hold for a while following a certain atrocious critique of Gap Year which severely dented my confidence. There are times when I actually wish I didn’t harbour this draining yearning to write; my life would be so much easier without the urge to create literature.  It drains me, but if I gave it up part of me would wither and die.  At the risk of sounding terribly pretentious, writing is like a lover who constantly breaks my heart but who I can’t live without!! 

From October 2008 to January 2009, I undertook a 12-week Open University Start Writing Fiction course , to ‘go back to the drawing board’ and hone my craft.  It was a brilliant course; I learned so much, and regained the confidence to pick up my pen and get back into the novels.  My overall mark was 76%, which I am over the moon about.  I have added some of the scribblings I submitted for that course on here, in the section ‘OU Pieces.’

I have now picked up where I left off with The Four Matthews. This is my current project, along with regularly submitting short stories to women’s magazines.

My other main passion in life is walking – when not writing, I’m at my happiest in my cagoule and filthy boots yomping across a muddy hill in the wild and lovely Peak District.  I do a lot of more local strolling too, and try to average around 30 miles a week.

I love food and drink too, and have taken a wine tasting course.

My other interests are tai chi, reading, cooking, swimming, eating out, visiting places, country drives, cycling, composing this thing, faffing around on Facebook, general t’internet browsing (I’m also a Wikipedia and YouTube addict), live music, the theatre, useless information.  I love spending time with my husband, friends and family, which now includes three beautiful nephews who I love to bits.

I married the love of my life, Nathan Mathers (not Eminem’s brother), on 30 June 2007 in a beautiful civil ceremony at the Mill at Alveley, Shropshire, after nine years together.  This may sound soppy, but I still think about our wedding a lot.  It was the best day of both our lives, and followed by the most amaaazing honeymoon ever in wonderful Mauritius (surely the closest thing to paradise on earth).

Oh, and I have no time for religion. I live and let live, people are free to pursue whichever faith they choose, but anyone who makes attempts to ‘convert’ me or forgive me for mythical ’sins’ is liable to be given a few suggestions on where to shove their Bibles!  Being a hardened atheist makes life so lovely and uncomplicated, I feel.

I have a tattoo of a cat on my right shoulder!

I am a regular blood donor, and am very strongly in favour of compulsory organ donation.  I would thus make a lousy Jehovah’s Witness – well that on top of the ‘not believing in God’ factor!!

Also, apparently I have a ‘chav’ first name.  Leighs are said to feature on a list that inspires dread in teachers!!  One look at these names on their register and they know they have troublemakers in class!  Well am I bovvered?  Betta dash – meeting me homies Chantelle, Nokia and Armani in town to collect our dole money then spend it down Foot Locker or the indoor market…

Anyway, I really hope you enjoy my stories.  My previous website http://www.leighmathers.co.uk is still up and running for the time being, but in time the plan is to phase that out to concentrate on this.