Episode 30: Living the author dream - with Lesley McEvoy

Once a writer, always a writer - someone wise once said. Becoming a published author though is a different matter altogether. That's been the 40-year-long dream of this week's Hobcast Book Show guest, Lesley McEvoy. Like so many writers, life, family and work combined to prevent her from pursuing a literary career. Instead, she built a successful freelance career as a psychologist and profiler, working in the corporate world, as well as some of the UK's most notorious prisons. But as she approached a 'significant' birthday, she decided the writing itch could not be ignored, and following a year away from the day job she secured her first book deal, with a little help from a certain Ian Rankin. Now signed up to a three-book deal with Bonnier's imprint Zaffre, Lesley tells us that determination was the biggest factor in achieving her dreams. Also this week, Adrian and Rebecca reflect on a tough week when COVID struck the Hobeck family, leaving a dream of their own in tatters ...