Biography (from the publishers): Sheila
Quigley shot into the headlines in 2003 when she struck a £300,000 two book
deal with the publishers Random House.
At the age of 57, a grandmother of eight, she was then living on the
Homelands Estate in Houghton-le-Spring near Sunderland. There followed a flurry of media activity
and her first book Run For
Home was published in April 2004.
In August that year, Sheila was the subject of an hour-long television
documentary, shown on BBC 1. When she
signed the deal she was jobless, living on benefits and had recently been told
her council house was to be demolished.
From that day on, her feet have hardly touched the ground.
Sheila Quigley is
the daughter of a miner and a dairy worker from Silkwood, and she left school
at 15 to work as a presser in a clothing factory. By the age of 18 she was already married and had three daughters
and a son. Over the years she has had
numerous jobs: market trader, machinist, double-glazing saleswoman, and of
course mother to her four children.
Despite the hard times, she was always a voracious reader and when her
youngest became a teenager she began writing in earnest on a battered
typewriter she had picked up at a car boot sale. Finally, after many rejection
slips, she sent off a screenplay about cigarette-smuggling in the North East to
an agent whose name she had found in the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and he
spotted her talent immediately. He
asked if she could write a novel instead, and the result was RUN FOR HOME. The rest, as they say, is history.
With the success of her novels, Sheila has moved from the
Homelands Estate to a new house, but continues to live near her friends and
family in Houghton-le-Spring. In October 2004 she was invited to the
prestigious ‘Women of the Year Awards’ at the Savoy in London, and in December
2004 she won a Reg Vardy Achievement Award, presented at the Stadium of Light
in Sunderland. Her second novel BAD MOON
RISING was published in spring 2005, and the following year saw the
publication of LIVING ON
A PRAYER. Sheila is now frequently asked
to give talks in bookshops and libraries about how she has become a successful
writer. EVERY BREATH
YOU TAKE is her fourth book.
The Seahills
Estate – visit Sheila Quigley’s homepage
Meet
the Author – watch Sheila Quilgley talk about Bad Moon Rising in
this video
BBC 4
Woman’s Hour – has an audio interview with Sheila Quigley from the time of Run
for Home
Sheila Quigley
speaks to Ayo Onatade for Shots Ezine
Grandmother has
write stuff – a news report from the BBC regarding her book deal with
Random House
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