The Diary of a Debut | 16th and 17th March 2011

Someone's nicked my idea! And a trip to my publisher

Hopes and Doubts — The Diary of a Debut

My first book, Before I Go to Sleep, first came out in April 2011. I’d completely forgotten that in the January of that year I started keeping a journal to chronicle things as they happened.

My entries were sporadic, and some intensely personal. I’ve tried to edit it as little as possible, however.

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16th March 2011 - 6 weeks to publication!

Coffee with J this evening. She told me about the opening scenes of an episode of a daytime soap called Doctors that she’d watched the previous week. ‘Woman goes into bedroom. Sees herself in mirror. “Oh no!” she says. “What’s happened? I look old! Who am?” etc. etc. Son comes in. Says, “Mum?” and she says, “I don’t have a son! Who are you?” etc etc.’ Sounded uncannily similar to my book and true enough when I got home I looked at it on Youtube. It’s almost as if someone has read the synopsis and nicked the idea.

[My editor] says