The South London book group I used to belong to was composed of women aged from early thirties to early fifties (eventually). I met some or all of them every month for six years, until I moved to Norfolk and, apart from the old friend who had introduced me, never saw them outside this context. But I felt very close to the core group, learning about them not only from their responses to the wide variety of novels we read, but also from the discussions about our lives, which would start over the Indian take-away and often continue late into the night. Over the years we shared birth, death, separation and divorce, adoption, mental and physical illness, pregnancy and menopause, colleagues and bosses, over-work and redundancy, problems with partners, parents, new boyfriends, ex-husbands, and children of all ages.

I wanted to portray something of that complexity of family life, which so many women of my generation are at the centre of.  I also wanted to write something which would hit the zeitgeist at some level, for the many avid novel readers of which we were just one small group. Bridget Jones had done it for young, single women; my ambition was to do something similar for "sandwich generation" women (those who combine responsibility for children, partners, a career, and often older adults too). Hen lit, rather than chick lit, perhaps.

The key ingredients, I thought, should be characters and relationships to identify with; a compelling plotline - if not exactly a "whodunit"; some serious issues which might engage women especially; a lightness of tone to enable us to laugh at ourselves, our attitudes, foibles and reactions to the ageing process; the grounding of a real life location; something a little other-wordly; and, of course, a happy ending.

I drew on themes and experiences from my own life - my own and my extended family combine biological and adopted parent/child relationships, and when I worked in television/video production, I was part of the team that developed the first explicit, adult sex education video, The Lovers Guide. Since then my "portfolio" career has moved me into the area of work-life balance, so it was inevitable that Mo would have concerns about that issue. I started writing Blood and Water while I was living in Upper Norwood (the South East London suburb in which Crystal Palace is located) and although I had moved to the country by the time I came to finish the novel, found it a richly evocative location in terms of both its present and its history.

Whilst I was writing, there were three aspects of the story in particular which I couldn't be sure were working or not. I asked a small number of friends to read and give me feedback as I wrote, on a chapter by chapter basis, and my book club to read the final draft all in one go, as if it were simply another novel for one of our monthly sessions. The things I asked both groups to comment on were:

*  Mo's character and thought processes. I wanted her to come across as a little whacky and a worrier, somewhat over-anxious perhaps, but credibly so because of the insecurities of her life before Jack. And yet I intended her to be likeable, and her search for a spiritual core to underpin her sense of being a good wife, mother, friend and professional person, to be authentic and believable.

*  The thriller aspect of the plot. A couple of images were constantly in my mind as I built up the parallel search for Caitlin and the investigation into Maxwell Robards. One was setting up a domino run so that each piece was in exactly the right place before tipping over the first one, which would bring down the others, one by one, with total inevitability. The other was slowly cranking a carriage up to the top of a roller coaster, holding it at the top for a moment, and then letting it go so the journey down grew in excitement and momentum round the twists and turns of a structure that was only just strong enough to hold it. At times I wasn't sure whether I had spent too long seeding the clues and setting up the different secrets to be revealed, or whether readers would pick up some of the revelations too early on.

*  And finally, the supernatural plot line - Old Peggy, her predictions and her awakening in Mo of the psychic gipsy inheritance which enables her to unravel the truth. I hoped it would be sufficiently intriguing to allow readers to suspend disbelief, however sceptical of such things they might be. And I wanted to blend fiction in with historical fact about the Crystal Palace and that corner of South East London, so you couldn't be quite sure where reality ended and fantasy took over. Although I had read about her, it wasn't until I was half way through the book that I found an actual picture of Margaret Finch, the Gipsy Queen, on the internet. This meant I could go back and insert more physical descriptions of Peggy, although she had co-incidentally been an emphysemic smoker from the start, and lay her to rest next to her "ancestor".

Discussion points for book groups:

Is Mo a character you can identify with, even if you don't share her spiritual views or perception of events? Or does she jump to conclusions, for instance about Jack and Miranda, or her own menopausal symptoms, on too little evidence?

Does the pace of the story feel right? Does the first half, where all the storylines are set up and the clues dropped, take too long in comparison to the unravelling of the second half?

How many of the revelations in the last two chapters did you see coming? Were any of them too obvious?

Was Old Peggy a convincing character, and her psychic gipsy inheritance a significant part of the story line?

"Blood and Water" refers, of course, to the saying "Blood is thicker than water". Did the book suggest that genetic ties were stronger than others?

Did the story raise issues about sex education, abortion and adoption?

Or let me know what you thought by posting a comment on my blog.

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