AN award-winning mystery writer is set to share the inspiration behind her latest novel as part of a new initiative to boost awareness of the region’s authors.

Sharon Bolton’s The Craftsman is in the spotlight for the first Great North West Read and will be celebrated in 340 libraries in the area.

The novelist will also be talking about the book at Warrington library on Thursday, November 22, when she will be in conversation with Cath Staincliffe.

Sharon said: “My working day is entirely alone so writing is a very solitary activity. I might spend the better part of a year working on one book and because, for most of that time, I’m getting no feedback at all I don’t really know if what I’m working on is any good.

“It’s only when it comes out and when I start to hear from readers do I know if it’s resonating or not.

“So it’s very useful to me to meet people who have read the book and talk about how they found the experience. On the other hand I hear from people on the other side of the planet who I will never meet who have been moved in some way by my stories and that makes me feel very privileged.”

The Craftsman is a tense thriller with a young female police constable investigating a series of murders in the 1970s. The first part of a trilogy, the story is set in the shadow of Lancashire’s Pendle Hill where the notorious Pendle witch trials were held in the 17th century.

Sharon added: “I’ve written several books but I’m very glad that this one has been chosen because it’s a story I’ve had in my own mind for many years.

“I was born and brought up in the north west, not far from Pendle Hill, and I grew up with stories of the Pendle witches as many people do in that part of the world.

“I was always very conscious that they could have been my ancestors and I was very interested in their story, particular what happened to turn the villagers against them.

“Something made an entire community turn against a group of very poor, very weak individuals. So it was that idea I wanted to explore in The Craftsman.

“We don’t believe in witches anymore but we still see witch hunts today. We still societies turning upon people who are a little bit weaker or a little bit different.”

Sharon became a published author a decade ago when Sacrifice was launched.

The 58-year-old took the plunge when everything was changing in her life all at once.

She said: “For a very long time it simply never occurred to me that I could do it but all the ingredients were there.

“I’ve always been an avid reader and have a powerful imagination.

“I’ve got a parallel life – the one in my head – going on at the same time I’m living my real one.

“And for a long time my job involved writing. I was working in PR and communications so I was writing press releases and articles and brochure copy. It was just a while before I put them all together and thought: ‘Hang on a minute’. Once I’d started I got the bug. I knew that’s what I wanted to do

“A lot of things were happening at once. My company was being taken over by another company, we were moving out of London because my husband had a new job and we wanted to start a family. So it was a sense of everything changing around me and if I was ever going to do it then now’s the time.”

Things move fast in the big publishing house world because The Craftsman is Sharon’s 11th book and she writes a book a year.

She added: “I started writing my first book, Sacrifice, when I was pregnant with my first son and I got my publishing deal when he was starting school.

“So that was quite a long process but I was writing around a young baby which wasn’t always easy.

“But once I had the first contract that was it. Since then I’ve done at least a book a year.

“That’s what’s expected when you write commercial fiction for a big publishing house.

“There is always that pressure that the book has to be good and has to be delivered on a certain date but it’s not something I would ever complain about.

“It’s nice to know the book I’m working on will be published and I have a team of editors, sub editors and proof readers who will help me make it as good as it can be.”

Sharon Bolton will be talking about The Craftsman at Warrington library on November 22 between 7pm and 8pm