It was a joyous night of celebration, on many levels, when my hubby whisked me away to Waterstones to the book launch of Hush Hush, by Mel Sherrat.

Any night spent in a book shop drinking wine is a joyous night of celebration in my book (pardon the pun). However, there’s no doubt that the author, Mel Sherrat, was celebrating, and her fellow Potteries’ folk were celebrating with her - it’s something we’re quite good at. It was great to finally meet Mel in person, after seeing so much of her writing life through social media. She’s a great source of inspiration to fledgling writers like myself as Mel has already made a roaring success (by dint of continued hard work and valid creativity) as a self published author. To share the moment with her as she launched her first externally published novel, Hush Hush, was a real honour.

Plenty of likeminded people had attended to support Mel, and even by the very end of the event the atmosphere was still buoyant. I don’t know if there were many who’d travelled from far afield (I’m sure there were) but there was sufficient evidence of local accents to make it clear that we support our own.

The shoe is on the other foot though, when reading her “grit lit” book (Mel’s phrase): Of course, it’s a page turner but it’s slightly more harrowing to be extremely familiar with the setting of the story - places that I know well and love aren’t spared in the storyline. It was a new experience for me to read a story set in a geography that is SO close to home. Thankfully, Mel didn’t overstep the mark and she reassures her readers that no oatcakes were harmed in the process of writing her books. However, I suspect a fair few might have been consumed in the process of writing it!